Introduction for the Special Issue on Beyond the Hypes of Geospatial Big Data: Theories, Methods, Analytics, and Applications

Abstract

We live in the era of ‘Big Data.’ In particular, Geospatial data, whether captured through remote sensors (e.g. satellite imagery) or generated from large-scale simulations (e.g. climate change models) have always been significantly large in size. Over the last decade however, advances in instrumentation and computation has seen the volume, variety, velocity, and veracity of this data increase exponentially. Of the 2.5 quintillion (1018) bytes of data that are generated on a daily basis across the globe, a large portion (arguably as much as 80%) is found to be geo-referenced. Therefore, this special issue is dedicated to the innovative theories, methods, analytics, and applications of geospatial big data. A total of 37 manuscripts were submitted and 10 were selected based on a robust peer-reviewed process. The 10 articles are authored by researchers from seven research institutes and universities, and reflect state of the research developments and initiatives in the collection, processing, modeling, analysis as well as applications of geospatial big data and future directions. Specifically, topics across global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing (RS), land-use planning, environmental sustainability, and mining deformation monitoring are included.