Geospatial information, technology, and applications have become ubiquitous in modern life, offering businesses a competitive advantage and evolving into a daily necessity for digitally connected individuals. Users in various economic sectors are increasingly integrating geospatial technology and information into their workflows to amplify their sector-specific outcomes and therefore contributing to global economy. As geospatial technology adoption grows across sectors, there's an opportunity for the geospatial ecosystem to evolve towards providing the sought-after geospatial knowledge. To meet the escalating need for geospatial content, National Geospatial Agencies (NGAs) need to persist in updating their geospatial strategies and workflows. This evolution should enable them to accommodate the growing demand while ensuring effectiveness and cost-efficiency.
Advancements in Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies have revolutionized the process of capturing, managing, and generating geospatial data. A growing number of entities within various industries are actively involved in generating geospatial content. This ongoing contribution serves to broaden the geospatial value chain and its wider ecosystem. Sharing and collaboration around national data and downstream applications and services will not only create value but also forge new business models, benefiting both NGAs and the industry at large. Collaborative efforts between geospatial, digital, and user industries can co-create enhanced geospatial knowledge services tailored to user demands. Therefore, Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure involves not only traditional geospatial stakeholders but also participants from digital and user ecosystems.
The Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure Summit with the theme ‘Mainstreaming Geospatial Knowledge Across Critical Economic Sectors’ will discuss the need for development of knowledge-focused national geospatial infrastructures, its role on the development of demand-driven geospatial knowledge products, and its impact on the workflow of critical economic sectors thereby supporting national development mandates.