GIS has become ubiquitous with the natural resource industry thanks to the technology’s capacity to manage, monitor, and assess forests, oil and gas, petrochemicals, mining sites, and the country landscape. Indeed, the Global GIS market in the Natural Resource Industry is one of the most steadily growing engineering markets in the world and is expected to post a CAGR of 9.34 percent during the 2012-2016 period.
Of course, as many drivers as the market may have to push it upwards, it has just as many challenges that must be overcome by vendors in order to maintain steady upward growth. We’ll outline both below.
Of the major drivers for this market, we’ve identified the following:
- Increasing Demand from Process Industries
- Need to Identify Natural Disasters
- Growing Need for Efficient Land Management
- Increasing Environmental Awareness
- Increasing Investment by Governments
These drivers notwithstanding, we can’t ignore the challenges faced by the market in the natural resource industry. Specifically, these:
- Easy Availability of Affordable Open-source GIS Software
- High Initial Investment
- Lack of Adoption of Integrated GIS Applications
- Lack of Expertise
- Lack of Adoption of Cloud-based GIS in Developing Countries
Almost all of these market barriers can be chalked up to two things: money, and the infancy of the technology. And so, it’s fair to assume that within a few years as the relationship between GIS and the Natural Resource Industry matures these issues will be ironed out on their own.
In fact even in the meantime, the level of impact of the market’s drivers dramatically outweigh its challenges. Just check out this graph below, and see for yourself:
Ultimately, when you consider what GIS technology has to offer to the Natural Resources Industry, it’s clear that the challenges faced by the market are trivial in comparison. It all really comes down to one thing: our planet’s current natural state. We need all the assistance we can get to keep our Earth and its resources healthy— and Geographical Information Systems are here to offer it.
For more information view our 2012-2016 GIS Market in the Natural Resources Industry Report.
