The World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) embraces a transformative brand identity after five years of unwavering dedication to advancing the geospatial industry and enhancing its influence worldwide.
INTERGEO 2023 Spotlight on WGIC’s Geospatial Influence
Join WGIC in Berlin from October 10 to 12 for a glimpse into the future of geospatial technology, the Metaverse, urban innovation, ocean business, and engaging discussions on diversity and inclusion.
Effective evidence-based policy-making that leverages geospatial data is an urgent need for governments worldwide to facilitate sustainable development. Moreover, governments are increasingly realizing that multilateral agencies, the private sector, and non-profits are essential stakeholders in delivering effective governance that lives up to the expectations of 21st-century citizens.
Understanding this imperative, the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), in collaboration with the World Bank, has developed the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF). The framework provides strategic guidance to develop and implement country-specific action plans for managing geospatial information in an integrated manner. IGIF offers a holistic model, especially for national Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs), to transition toward geospatial knowledge infrastructure (GKI) or delivering machine-readable knowledge on demand.
Recognizing the demand-driven push and the need for diversification in governance and regulation, the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) has commissioned studies to identify the proactive role of the private sector in agile policy development.
In the last four years, WGIC has conducted policy research and published reports on geospatial data economy, data privacy issues, resilient infrastructure, public-private partnerships, geospatial AI (GeoAI), digital twins, and greenhouse gas monitoring from space in an attempt to facilitate the exchange of knowledge within and outside the geospatial industry.
These reports covered a policy scan of all applicable legislation and policies around the globe, along with recommendations for industry and governments on how to move forward, complementing IGIF’s efforts piece-wise.
To demonstrate the complementarities between the two bodies of work and accelerate the geospatial ecosystem’s growth, WGIC recently brought out a policy paper titled “Enabling the Geospatial Ecosystem – Policy Considerations for Governments and Industry.”
Though technology innovation and its adoption have been happening somewhat independently through markets, this policy research report has focused on connecting and informing the private sector and policy initiatives.
Further, the mapping (Figure 1) aims to facilitate IGIF with a reliable body of supporting research based on holistic and inclusive stakeholder consultations. This also provides insights that help countries make evidence-based decisions for implementing integrated geospatial solutions. The IGIF pathways that directly benefit from WGIC’s existing body of work and future studies are Policy and Legal, Innovation, and Financial Pathways.
Governments increase the supply of knowledge-based products and services into the economy through policies and regulations. IGIF recognizes this as an essential ingredient for effective GKI implementation. However, keeping up with the accelerated pace of technological advancement, especially in the fourth industrial revolution paradigm, is proving challenging for governments. It is critical to identify the gaps between existing regulatory approaches and the rules needed to regulate new technologies and the business models enabled by them. Meanwhile, governments must implement interoperable, inclusive, and agile methods to govern the latest technologies without stifling innovation. Figure 2 highlights the elements of IGIF policy and legal pathway.
This is where WGIC’s policy research, which prioritizes these objectives, can play a vital role. For instance, WGIC’s reports on data privacy and GeoAI offer analyses of relevant laws, legislations, and global policies to help the private sector comply with them. These reports also clarify and present the policy trends to help the private sector prepare for expected regulatory requirements without any loss to future revenues for lack of compliance. WGIC’s GeoAI report, for example, explained the risk-based classification of AI applications proposed by the European Union’s then-expected “AI Act.”
Based on its extensive policy research, WGIC recommends IGIF focus on agile policy-making with an integrated approach that balances the needs of the government (public sector), standards and regulatory bodies, and industry, as well as skilling/ training providers. This collaborative effort would work towards achieving a collectively agreed vision.
Moreover, legislations should allow regulators the flexibility to adjust their enforcement approach without compromising the alignment with the principles of the law. This approach would make the laws agile enough and not become obsolete soon.
Along with effective policy and regulatory frameworks, an innovation ecosystem is critical in creating new products and services, opening new markets, and transforming existing ones to deliver greater user value.
Tracking technological advances and innovation is essential for understanding new possibilities. For example, advances in AI technologies have allowed reimagining the complex skill of driving a vehicle into a set of prediction problems. This may include how other vehicles or persons in view would act and how to respond in that situation. This reframing of the problem allowed imagining a future with autonomous vehicles and the emergence of a whole new industry of components, data services, and related business models.
WGIC reports on the latest advancements in GeoAI, digital twins, resilient infrastructure, and GHG monitoring and provides valuable insights into the potential opportunities, use cases, and business models. They also help policymakers build conducive environments for innovation and safe deployments of these technologies within their jurisdictions. They also outline the challenges faced in developing and in the large-scale adoption of emerging technologies.
Technology monitoring priorities based on requests from the geospatial industry make WGIC’s work in the domain much more relevant and usable for the stakeholders.
This approach allows WGIC to gather valuable stakeholder and industry inputs that can benefit IGIF’s innovation pathway and directly contribute to IGIF’s mission of fostering innovation and growth in the geospatial industry. Open data is a public good and critical for realizing the benefits of emerging geospatial technologies. Across the expert consultations conducted for most WGIC reports, there was unanimous agreement on continuously working towards making more government-owned data accessible to everyone. Promoting cross-border data exchanges could help data-starved countries overcome the challenges of data access and enable them to build innovative applications and use cases.
Further, sharing algorithms/models openly is vital to reduce costs/efforts in implementing IGIF. For example, companies have been putting their AI models and algorithms under open source because the business models for AI benefit from the ability to crowdsource new ideas from everywhere.
Even as financing of SDIs and IGIF at the country level has been limited, the growth in the value and use of geospatial data beyond the public sector has been astonishing. With new technologies such as cloud computing, AI, and communication technologies, geospatial data can significantly expand business opportunities for small and large businesses. In this scenario, governments can leverage their investments in better delivery of public services with geospatial data (or building SDIs) with additional investments from the private sector through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Thanks to the culture of open data, interoperability, and open-source collaborations, the geospatial industry is mature enough for new business models like PPPs.
Recognizing the untapped potential of PPPs in the geospatial domain and their benefits to IGIF, the WGIC report, “Public-Private Geospatial Collaborations: Exploring Potential Partnership Models” studied the potential of PPPs in IGIF implementation. The report highlighted that PPP business models could be placed “along a continuum of related models, differentiated by their contractual arrangements, areas of business focus, and procurement arrangements.” The report identified twelve PPP-based business models with unique characteristics and relevance to building national SDIs.
Additionally, while the WGIC report on data economy recognized how policies could impact the development of business models in an economy, the GeoAI report underscored the possibilities for creating new business models by recognizing trained AI models as assets. The UN IGIF High-Level working group has a sub-working group on sustainable finance for the country-level action plans. The WGIC report may provide insights into how PPP could support sustainable financing models. Overall, WGIC’s policy work brings the industry perspective on how IGIF’s financial pathway implementation can leverage new and innovative business models at all levels.
Key to the success of IGIF’s financial pathway is private sector participation.Governments could take the example of UN-GGIM, including the Private Sector Network (PSN), as part of its ecosystem to bring a diversity of thought, technology, investments, and innovative business models from the private sector to support the geospatial initiatives of the UN. Examples are UNSD, the GKI Alliance project, SDG Data Alliance. The National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC), USA, brings in private sector participation to discuss geospatial initiatives at the national level. Similarly, including the private sector at the planning stage of IGIF or GKI rollout is critical to source early and valuable inputs from them.
Further, governments need to promote innovation and new business model development by taking the risk of investments in proof of concepts (POC) and pilots. The US’s small business innovation research (SBIR) program is an excellent example of the government stimulating technology innovation and commercialization.
No single entity can implement IGIF alone in any geography or country. It is a job that requires all stakeholders to come together, collaborate, exchange knowledge, and work together to achieve common goals and co-create an inclusive future. This has been the underpinning and guiding philosophy of WGIC, and it invites all organizational and individual stakeholders to partner and collaborate on this mission.
Satellite Vu, the UK space and climate tech company on a mission to deliver practical access to sustainable solutions, has secured £81 million worth of purchase options from thirty companies for their Early Access Programme (EAP).
Satellite Vu is due to launch their first spacecraft in June 2023, and ahead of this opened their Early Access Programme to provide customers and partners with preferred access to their imagery products; as well as the opportunity to secure valuable capacity on the inaugural satellite.
The EAP has now onboarded thirty businesses with purchase options from customers from a diverse range of industries and geographical regions including Kayrros, Ordnance Survey and Japan Space Imaging Corporation that was announced last year. This commitment from a global range of players highlights the need for Satellite Vu’s efficient and scalable means of providing infrared data which lifts the lid on thermal activity around the world.
These customers will harness the power of mid-wave infrared satellite imagery to monitor sites of strategic interest, assessing global energy levels and industrial activity output, providing the information advantage for decision makers across government, defence, climate finance, asset management, trading, investment, and operation sectors.
Accurate geospatial data provides an edge in global strategic planning and risk mitigation. Kayrros and Earthi are all focused on increasing transparency through geospatial insight – applying a combination of multiple data streams, providing unique, tailored intelligence to multiple market sectors, highlighting the versatility of satellite imagery.
Alongside this there is a focus on the monitoring of the Built Environment, addressing the Urban Heat Island effect, a phenomenon coined in response to the enormity of industrial and residential heat that is being produced globally.
Those on the EAP with a primary product application in this area include Nexqt, Climate Engine and the Office of Planetary Observation. Using thermal data, Satellite Vu can provide a pattern of life thermal index of commercial and residential buildings. Combined with energy consumption and other information the Satellite Vu thermal index will provide an indication to these businesses of how efficient the structure is, identify where heat is being wasted and guide where energy improvement retrofit investments will have the biggest impact.
The overall ambition of this Early Access Programme is to democratise Earth observation, and Satellite Vu have partnered with businesses like SkyFi to do just this. SkyFi provides on-demand satellite imagery to anyone with a smartphone, tablet or computer using a purpose built platform allowing anyone to start exploring their library of Existing Images or to order a new satellite image.
Satellite Vu’s high-resolution technology offers a new way to analyse activity, detect changes and anomalies. As well as images, Satellite Vu will provide 60 second videos, which enables the visualisation of dynamic changes over time and build-up of a pattern of life. This makes it ideal for agricultural monitoring applications – something that Plant Stress Management, Crop Protection Agritech company, farmAIr is exploring through the EAP.
While the technology provides energy, building, and water sanitation insights to help mitigate man-made inefficiencies, it can also be used in a wide array of defence and intelligence applications. For Suhora and HEO Robotics who are part of the EAP, the primary application of the technology will be to deliver essential insights on space assets to government and defence agencies through innovation in spatial science.
To truly combat climate change, and accelerate decarbonisation, we need data to make informed decisions. Through the commitment to their EAP, Satellite Vu is on track to be the first-to-market with a space-based solution that will offer the capabilities that the government and commercial sector require to take action on the environmental impact our modern life is making on our planet.
Anthony Baker, CEO and Founder, Satellite Vu:“We are thrilled to see such a diverse range of companies onboard our EAP. This commitment to use thermal imaging and geospatial data across the globe highlights the need for measurable impact and real appetite to drive change across industries. We are committed to scaling our capacity to meet the market demand for our product and are excited to work closely with these businesses who are proactively readying themselves for the start of our commercial service via our first spacecraft.”
Antoine Rostand, Co-founder and President, Kayrros:“As a world leader in satellite image processing and environmental intelligence, Kayrros is always seeking new sources of Earth Observation data to enhance our offerings. That’s why we’re excited to be an early adopter of SatelliteVu’s powerful high-resolution thermal data and add it to our toolkit.”
“The advanced technology and data from Satellite Vu will support us as we continue to expand our real-time monitoring of human and industrial activity and its impact on the planet. By applying AI and data fusion to SatelliteVu’s thermal imagery, we are confident that we will expand the scope and refine the granularity of actionable data, enabling companies and regulators to make more informed decisions towards reaching their climate goals.”
Paul Bate, CEO at the UK Space Agency:“This £81 million commitment from 30 companies for the thermal imaging Early Access Programme is an impressive achievement for Satellite Vu, and a brilliant example of how the UK Space Agency catalyses investment into UK science and technology.”
“Having supported this project over the last three years, it’s very good to see companies from a wide range of sectors – from farming and map production to defence and various financial operations – recognising the potential of Satellite Vu’s mid-wave infrared satellite imagery to enhance so many aspects of our lives, and to help us protect our planet.”
To register interest and learn more about Satellite Vu’s Early Access Programme, please visit: https://www.satellitevu.com/home/#contact-us
Founded to bring satellite technology to address global challenges, Satellite Vu will be able to monitor the temperature of any building on the planet in near real-time using a new mid-wave infrared camera. These images will provide valuable insights into economic activity, energy efficiency, and disaster response, monitoring the energy efficiency of buildings, the spread of wildfires, the urban heat island effect, and water pollution. Satellite Vu aims to be the Earth’s thermometer from space.
Satellite Vu has raised a combined total of £20 million from grants and venture capital led by Seraphim Space Investment Trust including Lockheed Martin Ventures, Molten and A/O PropTech.
Partnered with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd to build the satellite constellation and with SpaceX for the first satellite launch in June 2023, Satellite Vu is bringing the highest resolution thermal data to enable us to see the world like never before and take critical action towards Net Zero goals.
Satellite Vu has recently opened its Early Access Programme, which provides customers and partners with preferred access to Satellite Vu’s imagery, products, and services, as well as the opportunity to secure capacity on the first thermal monitoring satellite. Prior to launch, customers will be able to influence ongoing aerial campaigns, as well as test integration with Satellite Vu’s delivery platform and APIs.
Aaron Addison will assume the role of WGIC’s next Executive Director effective November 1, 2023, succeeding Barbara Ryan, who is concluding her term as the current executive director.
WGIC takes great pride in unveiling the recipients of the DEI Trailblazers Awards 2023, acknowledging their outstanding efforts in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Explore the dynamic partnership between the geospatial industry and academia through the eyes of Siva Ravada, Vice President of Development at Oracle and Chair of WGIC’s Industry-Academia Committee. Gain valuable insights into the committee’s work to prepare the future geospatial workforce to capitalize on the opportunities.
Gain insights on WGIC’s collaborative efforts with UN entities and government through the perspective of Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse, WGIC’s UN Engagement Lead and Director of Advisory and Innovation at Woolpert.
Geospatial experts, including WGIC members, came together at the ITU AI for Good workshop and discussed the challenges and opportunities in geospatial AI/ML, emphasizing the critical role of partnering with academia.
Geospatial plays a crucial role in the utility sector as more than 90% of utility enterprises have a context of location associated. Here’s a well-rounded take on how the private geospatial sector is navigating the new business reality by bringing leading-edge innovation to their products and services.
Geospatial in Everything
Geospatial for Everyone
Geospatial in Everything
Geospatial for Everyone
