Geospacial - Location is everything...

Penn State University Public Broadcasting is developing the Geospatial Revolution Project, an integrated public media and outreach initiative about the world of digital mapping and how it is changing the way we think, behave, and interact.

The video associated with this article starts with an example of how at risk a person might be in the event of a wildfire. The video goes on to explain that using modern technology including satellites, maps, sensor arrays, and other geospacial data, fire fighters can more accurately track the progress of a wildfire.

With modern technology and people using mobile phones, GPS and digital camera's the previously inaccessable information can now be made available to the masses.

Geospatial information influences nearly everything. Seamless layers of satellites, surveillance, and location-based technologies create a worldwide geographic knowledge base vital to solving myriad social and environmental problems in the interconnected global community. We count on these technologies to:

• fight climate change;
• map populations across continents, countries, and communities;
• track disease;
• strengthen bonds between cultures;
• defend your borders;
• assist first responders in protecting safety;
• enable democracy;
• navigate our personal lives.

The sweeping application of these technologies requires public education to understand both the application of these technologies and the issues of privacy and security that they raise.

For more information, check out the public information web site at Penn State University.