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Present Market Scenario
Geospatial Industry worldwide has been going through a phase of transformation from
being a specialized and domain specific industry to a more consumer oriented and
is also being brought into the mainstream. Technological developments in the field
of geospatial imaging through satellite imaging and speedy processing in particular,
has fuelled the much required need of updated geospatial dataset. This has resulted
in opening up of bigger market for geospatial industry. Expansion of geospatial
industry added with growing market has also created a huge demand of geospatial
professionals at different levels all over the world and in particular in Asia,
which not only offers a huge local market but also serve as outsourcing hub to provide
solutions and services worldwide. Another major development and trend which has
been driving and changing the shape of geospatial industry is transformation from
cartography to image based mapping, which has changed the content source and methodology
of creation of geographic datasets. Surveying and Remote Sensing techniques have
been the important components in data generation for GIS, be it large scale mapping
or small scale. For small scale maps, satellite images are the only source of information
from where the base map data can be captured along with ground surveying. This involves
the processing of the satellite images, either manually, through visual interpretation
techniques or automatically through the digital image processing of the satellite
images through available software.
Today, the availability and advancement in satellite and digital photogrammetry
has become the "by default" choice of map producers as it is very fast and efficient
as against traditional modes. This change has also, but natural, changed the required
skill sets for the geospatial professionals, creating a big demand for professionals
having competence to deal with image processing and digital photogrammetry. With
increasing resolution of the satellite images, upto 0.6m in PAN, the importance
of satellite images has only increased, not only for the small scale mapping, but
also for large scale mapping. This has also given rise to the importance of digital
image processing and the enhancements in the different tools being provided by the
digital image processing software. With different countries planning to launch new
satellites, the improvements in the resolution will only increase and the demand
for more image processing capabilities in the software will only increase.
Photogrammetry has always been associated with the large scale mapping. With advancement
in the field of hardware and software and the techniques, Photogrammetry has become
one of the indispensible sources of information for GIS. With satellite photogrammetry
and close range photogrammetry becoming commonplace today, the need for manpower
in this field will only increase in the times to come.
No remote sensing (aerial photography or satellite imaging) is complete without
the need for ground verifications of the objects and features. This generates the
need for surveying using the traditional as well as the modern techniques and technologies.
As the use of imaging technology is increasing with the need for large scale maps,
the need for surveying also has increased and shall only increase with time. This
together has given rise to the need for trained and qualified personnel in the field
of Surveying and Imaging.
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Growth and opportunities
With the total commercial remote sensing imagery, data, GIS software and Value added
services, as projected by Frost and Sullivan, to grow at a rate of 6.4% annually
(for 2003-10), and the revenue for satellite imagery to grow at more than 7% annually
to around USD 1500 Million in 2010, there is bound to be a quantum jump in the manpower
requirement, not only globally, but also in India. Now that India has launched Cartosat-2,
data of which is expected by this year end, there will be a spurt of requirement
for trained manpower for this data as well. With Survey of India awarding contracts
to private players, for large scale mapping of major Indian cities at 1:1000 scale,
the requirement for trained photogrammetrists also is bound to increase. Large scale
mapping of Ahmedabad and Chennai by Infotech Enterprise through aerial Photogrammetry
has led to the setting up of dedicated facility for processing of the aerial photographs
and this in turn will need more and more trained manpower. Once these two cities
are complete, the mapping shall be extended to more cities across the country and
more and more private players shall be roped in.
Similar is the case for other countries in the Asia Pacific region. With China and
Israel, besides India, leading the race of satellite launch for earth observation,
there will be several terabytes of satellite data available for processing, which
shall also require the ground verifications. This shall lead to the demand for qualified
and trained manpower. This region has established itself as an outsourcing hub and
countries like Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, being developed as new
outsourcing destinations, the jobs in the image processing and surveying are bound
to be outsourced to these countries.
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