Outlook

What will be the influence of a possible economic recession on the future outlook for the geomatics business? Will growth stall? Will it steadily increase, and, despite all, explode? Or will the market react by sliding into a decline? With the world economy faltering and prospects uncertain, decision-makers in every industry are eagerly trying to forecast how their businesses will react and survive this hiccup, or worse, recession.

It may be skating on thin ice, but I will hazard a guess. At the end of the day I am no economist, and even if I were my guess would probably be just that. But still, with a little help from the results of the Satellite and Information Service Remote Sensing Survey produced for NOAA by Global Marketing Insights for 2005 and early 2006, I will have a go. This survey collated more than 1,547 online surveys and 250 personal interviews to get an idea of what decision-makers in remote sensing were predicting concerning the outlook for their business, a major part of the whole of the geomatics sector.

Respondents came from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, thus representing global input. Although the survey did not go out to the entire geomatics industry, the remote-sensing sector is so significant a chunk of it that the survey can reasonably provide a notional overview of the whole. Overall, respondents were very optimistic regarding the outlook for the business. The group of respondents from the United States, one area of the world currently struck by disappointing growth figures, expressed optimism equal to the high levels found among other groups. Respondents were asked to identify trends in society that they felt would co-shape or influence the future of the remote-sensing and aerial market. Many quoted the greater emphasis on National Defence/Homeland Security as a very important reason for growth: no strange point of view, especially amongst respondents from the US, where this area of activity has soared in profile since 9/11.

所需的地施特尔，濒危物种，国家资源，遗产保护和全球变暖的映射是其他被引用的驱动因素对行业产生的积极影响，因为它们会增加对数据和服务的需求。

尽管对这项调查的最初回应可以追溯到2005年底，但总的来说，乐观主义可能仍然是合理的。从那以后，调查受访者确定其积极态度的原因仅增加了体重。遥不可及的行业在很大程度上取决于政府的命令，目前，政府在保护动植物和动物区系，采取预防措施，以防止全球变暖和保护其公民 - 所有这些都增加了对数据的需求。并得出这样的结论：遥感及其相邻领域将在可预见的未来蓬勃发展。疯狂的猜测还是一厢情愿？我不这么认为。