So what is a mobile GIS, who is using this evolving technology, how does it benefit the organization, when can you expect to see its use become widespread, and where can you obtain a product offering? Let's take a look.

Components of a Mobile GIS

Mobilize: adapt, assemble, command, gather, marshal, organize, prepare, transport, unify, unite (from The New Webster's Library of Practical Information Thesaurus)

The basic components of a mobile GIS can be described in many ways. At a minimum, it must include a portable computing device (client), a wireless network of some kind, a server or GIS content provider, and software. Optionally, it may include a location positioning system (i.e. GPS). The software must operate on the client and the server utilizing the network to pass content between the two. The portable device might be a PDA, tablet PC, or ruggedized laptop. Performance of the application is directly related to the wireless network architecture because different wireless networks have different transmission rates.

The GIS content provider serves up the GIS content over the wireless network to the client. That content might include base map information, street networks, addresses, and other location data. It might also include attributes about map features such as details of utility poles, pipelines, work orders, or customer information.

The GIS servers may include the following types:

• Web

• Application

• Map

• Data

The software might support information processing functions such as: location query and display, geocoding or address-matching, spatial search, routing, map display, and rendering. Those functions can be performed on the server then sent to the mobile unit, or they may operate directly on the client device.

Gateway software, or middleware, provides the link from the GIS servers and information processing software to the wireless devices.

Example Mobile Applications

There are a myriad of organizations that use, or could benefit from the use of mobile GIS applications and some of those include:

• Natural Resources/Environmental (Vegetation Surveys, Fire Management, Soil and Water Sampling)

• Utilities (Pole Inventory, Asset Condition Monitoring, Inspections and Maintenance, Outage and Emergency Response,         Meter Reading)

• Emergency Services (Threat Response, Police and Fire, Natural Disasters)

• Insurance (Property Damage, Stolen Vehicles, Assessing Flood Risk)

• Local Government (Roads and Traffic, Engineering and Sanitary Services, Land Use Planning)

• Telecommunications (Asset Location and Maintenance, Network Planning and Design, Customer Information)

• Transport/Distribution (Fleet Maintenance, Routing, Logistics Planning and Support)

• Architecture/Engineering/Construction (Schedule Work, Manage Assets, Log Survey Data, Monitor Field Workers and Construction Progress)

These are just a few examples of the many types of applications that a mobile GIS solution can be used to support. Some real world examples are examined here in more detail.

American Frontiers Public Lands Trek

"The Journey, or Trek, involved two groups of travelers: one starting north from the Mexican border and the second headed south from the Canadian. Their route lay entirely on public lands, a feat that has never been accomplished before. The trek began on July 31, 2002 and ended two months later when the two teams met in Wasatch-Cache National Forest near Salt Lake City, Utah on September 27."

(from the website of American Frontiers: A Public Lands Journey http:// www.americanfrontiers.net/trek/)

My personal experience with a mobile GIS began in August 2002 when I joined up with the all-volunteer technical support team for the "Trek." Technical support was provided by voluntary contributions from ESRI, who provided software licenses and maintained an ArcIMS website for tracking the trekker's progress; Earth Analytic, who provided the mobile GIS field trailer and satellite dish for Internet access; and other volunteers with a technical background in GIS, GPS, and general computer support plus a lust for adventure. As a member of the techie team, some of our support functions included:

• GIS and GPS support and training to other non-technical team members

• Local map production

• Field data collection and processing (including getting "local" data from local agencies when passing through, for more       detailed and current maps)

• Data delivery to ESRI-ArcIMS team (via satellite Internet connection)

• Access to weather updates (for support team logistics/planning)

• Field logistics and emergency communications

• Trek route adjustment and analysis (weather, fire, route access information, and other issues)

• Facilitate trekkers' personal communications and email (they all had email accounts for personal communications).

Although the trekkers did not use a mobile GIS solution in the typical sense whereby GIS data and/or maps are served to a handheld device in the field, it did provide many of the benefits and used most of the components that you would expect to find in a more typical example. For instance, the Motosat DataStorm satellite dish (Figure 1) provided our "wireless" network via an Internet connection from the top of the Continental Divide in Montana, or wherever the Trek team happened to be where there was an unobstructed view of the southern sky (Figure 2).

The trekkers also used handheld GPS devices along with the maps that the tech team produced each morning for navigating that day's segment of the journey, and to avoid privately owned lands. This proved to be a huge benefit to the trekkers, especially after one particularly long and stressful hike (prior to the maps being available) that ended after midnight when the trek team finally found their way to camp at that day's final destination.

Boulder County Sign Inventory

In 1995, Boulder County Colorado embarked on the development of a GIS to support road maintenance. The GIS includes street centerlines, bridges, culverts, and other transportation-related data layers. Then in 2000, John Mosher of the Boulder County Transportation Maintenance department took it to the next level by implementing a new method of collecting and maintaining road sign information.

Field workers from the Sign Shop used a mobile GIS based on the ESRI ArcPad software and Trimble GPS equipment with a portable (handheld) PC to collect and update data about the 7,000+ road signs in the county. The handhelds contained accurate and up-to-date digital maps of the road signs with attributes such as the GPS-captured location, sign type, condition, and other details. Field workers were then able to update information on an existing sign in the database while standing in front of it (Figure 3).

 Missing, incorrectly identified, or damaged signs could then be more easily located and replaced if necessary. Routine inspections are now faster and more accurate, saving the county thousands of dollars each year in maintenance costs.

Integrated Mobile GIS for Environmental Management

A research project was conducted by San Diego State University to develop a working example of integrated GIS, GPS, and remote sensing capabilities for real-time analysis of geospatial data sets over a wireless network using mobile devices: http://map.sdsu.edu/mobilegis/.

An additional objective was to determine some specific land management applications that could most benefit from real-time, wireless access to geospatial data in the field. One working prototype that is demonstrated on the project website describes a habitat management scenario at Mission Trails Regional Park.

Park managers can access the Internet map server via their mobile devices, such as pocket PCs, laptops, or personal digital assistants (PDAs) while in the field. Monitoring and change detection of natural resource areas can be accomplished in real time by integrating GPS, wireless communications, and GIS content served via the Internet over the wireless (IEEE 802.11b or Wi-Fi standard) connection.

The idea is that a resource manager can locate an area of interest, based on information derived from remotely sensed data such as changes in land cover (in this case, new locations of invasive plants) based on the comparison of digital remotely sensed images captured in 2000 and 2001 (Figure 4).

The habitat maps can then be updated using real-time GPS positioning (Figure 5). Updated GIS data can then be sent back to the server over the wireless connection.

Product Offerings

There are almost as many different types of products offered to support mobile GIS applications, as there are organizations that could benefit from them. Some of those products, such as the ArcPad application from ESRI are specific to the GIS software vendor. Another example that is GIS-vendor specific uses the MapX  Mobile component from MapInfo and is called GeoMobile, from ESBI Computing (Dublin, Ireland). The product suites from Tadpole Cartesia include both a Java and a Visual Basic version, depending on the customer's desired application architecture, as well as a solution based on ESRI technology (i.e., ArcPad).

Some products are non-vendor specific such as the FieldSmart suite from Mapframe and the Advantex Mobile GIS product from MDSI. Those solutions are designed to convert the data from multiple sources to an internal, compressed format that can then be served to mobile devices for use in the field.

Swarming Toward a Solution

As the technology evolves so will the applicability of mobile and wireless solutions, including those of a geospatial nature. Computing devices are being refined, miniaturized, and improved in ways that we may not even be able to yet comprehend. As Michael Crichton informs us in his 2002 novel, Prey, nanotechnology is still in its infancy, yet practical advances are being made. Major corporations such as IBM, Fujitsu, and Intel are pouring huge dollars into research. Soon the techniques of nanotechnology will be used to make computing and storage devices of extremely small size (i.e., on the order of 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair).

Smaller size means greater mobility, more computing power in a portable device, and therefore more opportunities to create new solutions for an increasingly mobile workforce. The convergence of networks and devices is just the beginning of the information technology revolution. Looking ahead mobility is not just about cell phones and workers. It is about every "object" becoming intelligent and able to communicate information.

In fact, according to an October 18, 2003 weblog on SmartMobs.com:

"Corporations may like to think they are part of a value chain, but in reality they are linked in a value Web where collaboration with other companies-even competitors-is crucial to success. In this new corporate ecosystem companies with the right connections can advance. Against this backdrop, mobile technologies such as cellular phones, hand-held devices and wireless networks are critical."

"They allow tomorrow's connected corporations to achieve new levels of collaboration, knowledge-sharing and partnership," says Novum analyst Jessica Figueras. She estimates there are currently 6.6 million ''hard-core mobile enterprise workers," connected to cellular networks worldwide. That total is expected to rise to 38 million by 2008.

Hopefully we can learn to utilize these new advancements in technology in ways that can help us to improve our world more efficiently and at a lower cost to society than ever before. Next time-more on Collaborative GIS technology.