Geoinformation leading to development of new, emerging sectors
The geospatial information sector, as a strategic and newly emerging industry, is becoming more and more deeply integrated into people’s daily lives, since 80 percent of human beings’ activities nowadays are related to their geographic locations, said participants at the UN World Geospatial Information Congress held in Deqing.
Autonomous driving is one clear example: “the geospatial information sector is interrelated with autonomous driving technologies, with the adoption of sensors widely used in the sector,” said Zhang Zhiwu, general manager of Beijing Sure Star Technology, which focuses on light detection and ranging — or Lidar — technology and the development and production of related products. The company is one of the few manufacturers in the world which have a full range of navigation and survey Lidar development capabilities.
“In terms of driverless technologies, high-definition maps will be vital and core to location and navigation, and that’s how our Lidar products can be used in perceiving the real-time changes in surrounding environments in a three-dimensional way,” she said.
Miao Xiaolin, deputy general manager of Guangzhoubased South Surveying and Mapping Group, said the commercialization in the production and updating of high-definition maps in China is a sector “with great market potential in the future”.
Talking about the congress, Zhang said that the Deqing meeting has successfully drawn the global focus of the geospatial information sector to China.
“This congress enables professionals worldwide to know more about the capabilities and products that Chinese companies possess, and it also demonstrated that China is gradually becoming one of the main geospatial information hubs of the world, alongside such powerful countries as Germany,” she said.
Dean Angelides, corporate director for international, alliances and partners at US based Esri Inc, said the Deqing congress brought together the best technologies and minds that are rethinking the way geospatial information professionals can integrate, cooperate and compete with each other.
“The big deal of this conference is really about having standards for being able to manage the information, and integrate and share the information for better securing and enabling of all the different types of decisions that have to be made for virtually every system that exists on the planet,” he said.
The congress, organized by the UN and hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources and the Zhejiang provincial government, serves as a platform to discuss the newest development trends in the surveying and mapping industry, and the ways to better support the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The event, held from Monday to Wednesday, drew more than 1,000 participants from more than 100 countries and regions in fields related to the geospatial information sector.
The big deal of this conference is really about having standards for being able to manage the information...”
Dean Angelides, corporate director at Esri Inc