A Geodata Fabric for the 21st Century, article reflections

A recent article by Jeff de La Beaujardière, on A Geodata Fabric for the 21st Century touches on many pertinent themes in geospatial technology in this column and beyond.

Jeff begins by reminding us of the 4 V’s of big data–volume, variety, velocity, and variability, telling us that we are firmly in the age of big data, with the NISAR satellite soon to be providing 85 TB of data per day, as just one example.  But he also states that geospatial and earth science is not the only field grappling with big data, giving impressive numbers coming out from astronomy and geomics (geonome science).  Jeff says, “We need a more unified approach such that each data provider—whether in the atmosphere, land surface, seismology, hydrology, oceanography, or cryosphere domain—can contribute to a shared and commonly accessible framework.”  To build it, he says we need (1) a new type of storage (such as object storage); (2) minimize the number of times we move data (I think of how many times in a typical project I move data around:  Can I reduce this number?); (3) to take advantage of the cloud; and (4) keep things simple.  Jeff says, “A user should be able simply to ask for—or directly visualize—a desired data set, time range, and area of interest while software behind the scenes automatically provides what was requested.”  Amen to that!  And he makes a good tie to the role that machine learning could play.   Could the Esri geospatial cloud help enable this?

Taking a step back from the technological and logistical aspects of collecting and managing large volumes of data, we also need to ask what we want from all this data, in the short, medium and longer term. Our aspirations and expectations are sometimes harder to define and maintain. What do we want to do with all this data and when do we need to do it? There are many great examples of some of the things we can do with spatial data but sometimes they seem to focus more on the technology, the latest version of a particular software or innovation in data management technology, than on progress towards achieving a longer term goal such as improved environmental and resource management.

The improvements in data collection, storage and management over the last 50 years have revolutionised what we can capture and what we can do with the data. To make the most of these invaluable data assets, we must also avoid the distraction of the bright shiny lights of technology for technology’s sake and keep in mind what we are trying to achieve. Starting with the desired end result:  What data helps achieve that, the best source/format/currency, regardless of how it is stored and whose server does it sits on.

–Jill Clark, Joseph Kerski