Mobile Geospatial Applications: A New GIS Paradigm

Introduction
Mobile Geospatial Applications can be thought of as ‘GIS on the go.’ They are GIS applications intended to be used in the field for the purpose of locating and cataloging resources or for assisting the mobile worker in a particular task that requires spatial information (vehicle navigation/tracking). The domain of mobile geospatial applications is an enabling technology that is synergistically combining the following leading edge technologies: Portable computing, GIS, GPS/GPS, wireless communications, lightweight databases, and distributed software components.

The ever-increasing push for interconnectivity and business intelligence in the field, coupled with the inherent capability of GIS systems as tools for information synthesis promises to make mobile GIS the ‘killer app’ of the next decade. The widespread availability and decreasing cost of such technologies as GPS and the wide array of choices in both communications and lightweight computing platforms have allowed mobile GIS to evolve from the limited vertical market to the horizontal mass market.

Bachground
In order to understand the current role of mobile GIS applications one must first look at three different trends:

The relentless push towards connectivity, interoperability and distributed information, the coming of age of the mobile worker, and the ever -increasing demand for geospatial information.

Connectivity and Interoperability
The web has become the ubiquitous neural backbone linking us all together. Such business practices as ‘just in time inventory’ has placed great demand for accurate and timely information. The relentless expansion of e-commerce is pushing new standards for security and the ability to effectively conduct business over the web. These capabilities in turn have created an even greater, more dynamic and freer marketplace. Simply having the connections is not enough. The IT landscape has become increasingly dependent on multi-tiered applications, distributed objects, distributed data, and intelligent agents thus making the dividing lines between data, software and network very diffuse.

Mobility
A recent white paper by IDC has identified the mobile worker, the proliferation of distributed web based apps, and the usage of intelligent wireless mobile computing devices as ‘the third paradigm of computer usage’ (IDC 1998). The explosive growth of mobile computing has truly been phenomenal. Some estimates for the number of mobile workers worldwide are as high as 108 million by the year 2001. Sales figures for handheld devices in the U.S. are expected to exceed 14.1 million in 1999. This figure does not include laptop or notebook computers. The phenomenal growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web is undoubtedly fueling this trend. Equally as provocative has been the rapid rise in wireless communications, and the accompanying services, i.e., digital and cellular voice and data, paging, email, fax, and Internet access.

Geospatial Information
GIS has steadily grown from its modest beginning in the 1960s as a mainframe based tool for land use planning to its current stature not only as the direct result of the ever decreasing $/MIPS ratio, but also because maps are a powerful tool for conveying useful information. Maps have existed since the Stone Age, predating the written word. They represent the quickest way of conveying spatial information and relationships non-verbally. GIS gives a virtual map with the additional capabilities of spatial queries and data edits at the click of a button. The mobile worker is dependent on accurate spatial information such as their current location, their destination, and the location of the assets with which they will be working.