Understanding and Profiting from Geomatics

According to his biography on the Kim Geomatics corporate website, Robert (Bob) Ryerson is not just the firms president and founder.

He's a former Director General in the Government of Canada, a past Chair of the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (now part of the Canadian Astronautics and Space Institute) and a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).

He's also a writer, having contributed to the Manual of Remote Sensing as an author/editor of the 2nd edition and editor in chief of the first three volumes of the 3rd edition. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Geomatics Industry Association of Canada (GIAC).

All of which makes Ryerson both a busy person and an acknowledged expert in something called geomatics, which Wikipedia describes as the discipline of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering geographic or spatially referenced information.

Geomatics is essentially an interesting "mashup" of surveying and cartography with additional components relating to geodesy, hydrography, photogrammetry and remote sensing mixed in and with everything wrapped up around the latest orbital imaging and data tracking technology.

Of course, it's also one of those new and innovative technologies that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is promoting on trade trips throughout the world, as per this recent OMNI News report which highlighted Canadian geomatics focused company PCI Geomatics.


PCI Geomatics featured on OMNI News from pcigeomatics on Vimeo.

According to GeoConnections, a Canadian government website focused on uses for location-based (or "geospatial") information:

Geomatics has been one of the fastest-growing technology sectors in recent years, and Canada is at its forefront. 

Canada's geomatics community is a recognized world leader in providing the software, hardware, value-added services and knowledge that help clients address challenges and opportunities in such areas as the environment, health care, land management and reform, development planning, infrastructure management, natural resource monitoring, weather reporting, education and school curriculum, recreational industries, sustainable development, and coastal zone management and mapping.

All of which gives quite a bit of scope for developing new business applications.

As for Ryerson, he's an acknowledged expert in this emerging field so it's only natural that his next book (co-authored with Kim Geomatics Senior Associate Stan Aronof) takes advantage of this expertise.

Titled "Why "Where" Matters: Understanding and Profiting from GPS, GIS and Remote Sensing," the book focuses on the business applications surrounding geomatics. According to the pre-publication literature:

This book identifies the key geospatial technologies you need to know, what they can do, and how individuals, business, and government will profit from them as they increasingly power our future economic well-being. It closes with advice on how these technologies can be applied to the benefit of the reader, no matter who – or where – that reader may be.

It sounds like an interesting read so I'll definitely be picking up a copy when it becomes available through the Kim Geomatics Corporation, Box 1125, Manotick, Ontario, Canada, K4M-1A9 in September 2010.

But for those of you who don't want to wait until September, the 2010 Canadian Geomatics Conference is in Calgary, Alberta from June 15th - 18th and will focus on "the abundant yet largely untapped potential of Intelligent Mapping and the critical role Geomatics can play in bolstering Canada’s productivity, innovation, global competitiveness and overall socio-economic well-being."