Introduction
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Map Analysis I-4
Multimedia Mapping
In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor has designated geospatial technology as one of the three “mega-
technologies” of the 21st century—right up there with nanotechnology and biotechnology. This broad
acceptance and impact is in large part the result of the general wave of computer pervasiveness in modern
society. People expect information to be “just a click away,” and spatial information is no exception.
However, societal acceptance also is the result of the new map forms and processing environments. Flagship
GISs, previously heralded as “toolboxes,” are giving way to Web services and tailored application solutions.
There’s a growing number of Web sites with extensive sets of map layers that enable users to “mix and match”
their own custom views. Data exchange and interoperability standards are taking hold to extend this flexibility
to multiple nodes on the Web, with some data from here, analytic tools from there and display capabilities from
over there.
The results are high-level applications that speak in a user’s idiom (not GIS-speak), hiding the complexity of
data manipulation and obscure command sequences. In this new environment, users focus on the spatial logic of
a solution and are hardly aware that GIS is involved.
Another characteristic of the new processing environment is the full integration of Global Positioning System
(GPS) and remote-sensing imagery with GIS. GPS and the digital map bring geographic positioning to the palm
of your hand. Toggling on and off an aerial photograph provides reality as a backdrop to GIS-summarized and
modeled information. Add ancillary systems, such as robotics, to the mix, and new automated procedures for
data collection and on-the-fly applications arise.
In addition to the changes in the processing environment, contemporary maps have radical new forms of display
beyond the historical 2-D planimetric paper map. Users now expect to be able to drape spatial information on a
3-D view of the terrain.
Virtual reality can transform the information from pastel polygons to rendered objects of trees, lakes and
buildings for near-photographic realism. Embedded hyperlinks access actual photos, video, audio, text and data
associated with map locations. Immersive imaging enables users to interactively pan and zoom in all directions
within a display.
4-D GIS (X,Y,Z and time) is the next major frontier. Currently, time is handled as a series of stored map layers
that can be animated to view changes on the landscape. Add predictive modeling to the mix, and proposed
management actions (e.g., timber harvesting and subsequent vegetation growth) can be introduced to look into
the future. Future data structures will accommodate time as a stored dimension and completely change the
conventional mapping paradigm.
Spatial Reasoning and Dialog (Future, Communicating Perceptions)
The future also will build on the cognitive basis as well as the databases of GIS technology. Information
systems are at a threshold that’s pushing well beyond mapping, management, modeling, and multimedia to
spatial reasoning and dialog.
Previously, analytical models focused on management options that are technically optimal: the scientific
solution. But, in reality, there’s another set of perspectives that must be considered—the social solution.
It’s this final sieve of management alternatives that most often confounds geographic-based decisions. It uses
elusive measures, such as human values, attitudes, beliefs, judgment, trust and understanding. These aren’t the
usual quantitative measures amenable to computer algorithms and traditional decision-making models.
The step from technically feasible to socially acceptable options isn ’t so much increased scientific and
econometric modeling as it is communication. Basic to effective communication is involvement of interested
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