Towards spatial enablement and beyond

Abstract

With the many challenges facing society today at multiple scales, location has emerged as a key facilitator in decision-making. Location data is now commonly regarded as the fourth driver in the decision-making process, complementing the more traditional triple bottom line approach (social, economic and environmental drivers). The location provides more intelligent data analysis due to improved analytical and visualisation capabilities. Additionally, initiatives like Gov 2.0 have provided a driver to increase responsiveness and service delivery capacity. As well as, recent technological developments, such as Web 2.0 and ubiquitous location based services, have made it easier for ordinary citizens and businesses to become spatially enabled, but just as importantly, these developments have provided them with tools to contribute to the flow of spatial information through all levels of society.

In this context, the concept of Spatially Enabled Society (SES), is offering new opportunities for government and wider society in the use and development of spatial information, but it needs to move beyond the current tendency for the responsibility to achieve SES to lie solely with governments. SES will be more readily achieved by increasing involvement from the private sector, and in the same vein, if the spatial industries start to look toward other industries for best practices in service delivery.

With this in mind, the theme of the GSDI 13 World Conference, Quebec 2012 is "Spatially Enabling Government, Industry and Citizens". Focusing on the journey we are on as professionals and researchers rather than just on objectives, it gives us a rich opportunity to examine how far we have come over the past twenty-plus years in terms of the infrastructure put in place, the applications but on top of that foundation, and our vision and expectations of what needs to be done next.