No technology has given us such a literal insight into the world around us than satellite imagery – from our everyday use of Google Maps to more serious applications in the local and national security community. This top down view of the world, combined with actionable data about the terrain, buildings and even persons on the ground, has transformed how emergency responders, law enforcement officials, and others in the security arena act on intelligence, plan and prepare for potential scenarios and adjust tactics from the field. However – traditional geospatial imagery and information has its limits. Say, for example you are a law enforcement official in Arlington, Virginia. While your geospatial app can give you a great view of the roof of a potential suspect’s apartment block, and probably also tell you which apartment your suspect lives in. What if you could use the power of multiple, yet integrated viewpoints, to measure the perimeter of the block, gauge the best surveillance points based on a clear line of sight, plan ingress and egress points, and share this information in pre-raid briefings. Imagine the time saved during the initial “Time on Target”?

The blog entry below contains excerpts from ‘Putting Virtual “Boots on the Ground” – Law Enforcement Gets Intelligence on Demand,’ originally written by Caron Beesley and published on

Virtual USA, Virtual Alabama, and Virginia Interoperability Picture for Emergency Response (VIPER). What do these three geospatial tools have in common? They are all geospatial emergency management tools that are making the promises of Gov 2.0 a reality. As I’m sure you’re aware, Gov 2.0’s purpose is to socialize government services, processes and data through IT. So what does this mean for geospatial technology? I recently read an article entitled, Geospatial tools offer killer app for Gov 2.0 that discusses the future of geospatial technology and the direction it must head in order to stay viable. That direction, according to the article, is making the data actionable. In other words, designing applications that keep the end user in mind, providing for the accessibility and use of that data by both the data gatherers and end users, and making sure the collaboration between the two is sustainable. But how is this achieved in best practice?

From the latest TV meteorological reports to the local police department efforts to reduce crime in your neighborhood – geospatial data affects our everyday lives in some capacity. Generally speaking, however, the public hasn’t traditionally needed to access this information or even know how to interpret it. This is about to change. I recently came across a blog entry on techpresident.com, entitled “Feds Launch New Geospatial Platform”, that describes the launch of a new website, GeoPlatform.gov. This new site is a part of the Obama administration’s push for open government and is intended to bring place-based products and services to the American public. According to the site, The Geospatial Platform is a managed portfolio of common geospatial data, services, and applications contributed to, and administered by, authoritative sources. The platform data is hosted on a shared infrastructure for use by government agencies and partners (academics and other organizations) to meet their mission needs and the broader needs of the Nation.

If you are a law enforcement official, you’ll understand the power of geospatial imagery as an essential enabler of location and terrain intelligence gathering. But while traditional satellite imagery and GIS systems provide invaluable situational awareness capabilities, they don’t always provide all the answers. For one, traditional geospatial imagery is orthogonal, i.e. “a top down view”, which flattens the landscape and gives no perspective, making it tricky to gain a true representation of terrain or buildings – after all it’s hard to pre-plan a mission or understand potential risk factors about a structure or location when all you see is an anonymous tiled roof and vague perimeter.

Emergency preparedness is often times something most residents don’t think about until they’re face to face with a disaster. By then it could be too late. Louisiana is doing their part to stop this trend and help residents with emergency preparedness. The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) have released the first public version of Google Earth Enterprise. This new software, called Louisiana Earth, will assist the citizens of Louisiana in emergency planning. Released as part of the state's "Get a Game Plan" campaign, Louisiana Earth uses Google Earth Enterprise to assist citizens in creating evacuation plans. LA Earth provides access to all of the states evacuation routes, sheltering points, historical hazard data and other information that is essential during an evacuation such as locations of and available occupancy of hotels, gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, veterinary clinics and banks.

So you always wanted to be a forest ranger, but can’t imagine life without take-out food and lattes? One way to live out your fantasy is to care for an urban forest. Though it sounds like an oxymoron, urban forestry is a serious science. Urban foresters plant, maintain and care for street and median trees, making sure they survive and thrive. City trees must cope with a daily onslaught of car exhaust and dog visits, sidewalk encroachments and the occasional parking mishap. Through it all, urban trees deliver substantial economic, environmental and aesthetic benefits.

I think it is a fair statement to say that at long last the wall dividing the CAD and GIS communities has crumbled. You have probably noticed many of the trade magazines are devoting articles with titles like “Bridging the Gap between CAD and GIS,” “GIS for Surveyors,” and “Integrating CAD & GIS.” In this article I will endeavor to convince you that the dark ages, where only those early adopters who dwell out on the bleeding edge dare to tread, is over. It is not only perfectly safe to integrate the two technologies but it is relatively simple. If you don’t begin these efforts soon you may find that the folks who have are leaving you far behind.