Geospatial information engineering and geographic information systems (GIS) are revolutionizing our daily lives and various industries by efficiently processing and utilizing geographic and spatial information, and are becoming essential technologies for smartphone applications, traffic management, environmental protection, and many other fields.
We’ve all heard the phrase “a small world in the palm of your hand,” which is often seen in commercials on TV. The phrase refers to smart mobile devices, and it’s no wonder: these days, we can do everything we want, when we want, and where we want. The advent of the smartphone and subsequent advances in mobile technology have revolutionized our lives. Communication, information search, financial transactions, social networking, entertainment, and many other activities can be easily accomplished with a single smartphone. Let’s take a hypothetical situation and recall when you first enrolled at Seoul National University. Due to the enormous size of the school, everyone has experienced the difficulty of finding their classroom. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see students using applications such as ‘Seoul National University’ or ‘In SNU’ on their smartphones to locate their classrooms. This is thanks to the development of geoinformation engineering.
You may have heard of the discipline through various media. As society is developing beyond the limits of time and space, how to process geographic and spatial information and use it efficiently has become a very important research issue in the current era. Geographic and spatial information refers not only to the location of objects, but also to the shape of the land, the design of roads, the density of buildings, etc. The ability to accurately and quickly process this information is essential in modern society. Therefore, “geospatial information engineering” is the study and development of methods to acquire such geographic and spatial information to facilitate human social activities. In a society that demands faster and more accurate information, Geographic Information System (GIS) has evolved into the core of geospatial engineering. GIS is a system that allows you to view a vast amount of geographic information at a glance, anywhere, anytime.
Take a look at any bus stop in Seoul, and you’ll see that there are electronic displays that tell you which buses are arriving and when. If you open the bus application on your smartphone, you can even see where the bus is passing by. This is all thanks to GIS. This system analyzes geographic information data about buses collected by satellites to provide users with the information they need, such as the current location of the bus or its estimated arrival time. This information plays an important role in reducing traffic congestion and promoting the use of public transportation. The development of GIS technology is not only important for urban transportation management, but also for disaster response, environmental protection, resource management, and many other fields.
Most of us have used Google Maps on the Internet or on our cell phones. Google Maps is also a web-based map designed using geographic information systems. Google Maps is a great example of the power of geographic information systems. It allows you to see any part of the world with just one click, as if you were there. Web maps, including Google Maps, don’t just allow you to locate a location, they allow you to see what it looks like in real life, and they allow you to get a three-dimensional view of the terrain. Google Maps’ Street View feature is particularly useful, giving you a 360-degree panoramic view of the street as if you were there.
Geographic information systems, and by extension, the discipline of spatial information engineering, has a wide range of applications. Human activity always involves spatial concepts. In other words, people are always in some place, and everything they do requires a definition of “somewhere”. The Department of Construction and Environmental Engineering is composed of spatial information engineering, transportation engineering, structural engineering and construction management, urban design and planning, hydraulic engineering, geotechnical engineering, and environmental engineering. Deciding where to build infrastructure, determining where development is concentrated in a city, and determining where traffic congestion is severe all require geographic and spatial information. The field of environmental engineering, in particular, is using GIS to better track pollution sources, manage natural resources, study climate change, and more. In other words, GIS is a discipline that can be seen as a foundation for other disciplines.
As shown in the above examples, GIS has dramatically improved the quality of life by enabling humans to understand and efficiently manage space. Especially in the field of built environment engineering, it is highly utilized in many fields and has penetrated deeply into our daily lives, making it an essential discipline that we cannot live without. In line with the growing interest in spatial information, this field is expected to make great contributions to human life through leaps and bounds in the future. In addition, the development of geospatial information engineering will play an important role in various high-tech fields such as building smart cities, developing autonomous vehicles, and precision agriculture. These technological advances will make our lives more convenient and safer, and will be an important foundation for a sustainable future.
