Information technology is rapidly changing the way that governments and the private sector conduct business. A growing reliance on the use of computers for processing and distributing information is dramatically increasing demands for electronic data. In no area is this more true than in the use of technology to collect, analyse, manage, and disseminate spatial data.
Spatial data in its simplest form is concerned with the identification of location or position. It also includes physical characteristics of and relationships between objects. Over 80% of the data currently used in government, commerce, and industry is spatially referenced. Examples of this spatial reference include; street address, postcode, work location, product delivery network, shopping district, local government district, customer location, and service delivery route.
Businesses and governments today are seeking every opportunity to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. Tools that enable management and the workforce to identify problems more readily and find solutions faster are eagerly sought.
Spatial data is critical to solving today's complex environmental, economic, and social problems. The use of spatial information system technologies for digitally analysing spatial problems has become pervasive and in the process, created a demand for vast amounts of digital spatial data. Spatial system technologies include land information systems (LIS) and geographic information systems (GIS) as well as automated mapping and facilities management systems (AM/FM) and image processing systems that use aerial and satellite imagery.
The use of spatial information technology makes abstract information far simpler to comprehend by displaying it in a graphical or visual manner. Many business owners and managers are finding that using spatial data can provide their businesses with a significant commercial advantage. For example:
Just as the graphical user interface has made the use of computers intuitive and straightforward to even unskilled users, the addition of the spatial component to data and its subsequent graphic display helps to make information comprehensible to all whom seek it. This graphical display provides the user with a picture that supports the interpretation of far more information about things such as relative location and spatial context than could be gleaned from a table of data. It also becomes possible to measure many of the identified relationships.
Concurrent with the evolution of spatial information technologies has been a revolution in communications and electronic networking. Increasingly, individuals are using electronic networks to communicate with others both within and outside of their own organisations. Computing capability has evolved from primarily centralised mainframe processing, to within-agency distributed processing, to a current state of multi-nation, multi-organisation "virtual" processing. The evolution of networking capabilities, particularly the Internet, is changing forms of communication and the nature of working relationships. These changes are likely to have profound effects on current organisational structures.