Although “geospatial” is a term relatively unknown to the average person, the benefits of thisamazing technology are evident in our everyday lives. Your local water utility uses geospatialtechnology to manage water distribution, optimize infrastructure maintenance, and conductemergency response.Your city government uses it to map tax boundaries, conduct crime analysis,and forecast growth.Your nearby department store uses it to determine the optimal location of itsnext store based on demographics and buying patterns. In fact, geospatial technology is all aroundyou and is used in virtually any field you can imagine, including:

� Business � Agriculture � Government � Utilities � Banking � Environmental Protection� Telecommunications � Intelligence � Forestry � Transportation � Health Care � Retail � Military � Real Estate � Education

E x p l o r e y o u r g e o s p a t i a l w o r l d.

INSIDE THEINDUSTRYKick-Start Your Geospatial

Career Today!

The high demand for qualified professionals, the continued explosive growth of the industry,

and the excitement of being part of an exciting new field all make choosing a geospatial

career an intelligent choice. For more information on the geospatial industry, including job

growth statistics, video podcasts of actual geospatial professionals, and educational require-

ments for a career in the industry, visit the Geospatial Workforce Information System

(GIWIS) Web portal at www.giwis.org.

Association of AmericanGeographers

1710 16th Street NWWashington, DC 20009Phone: 202-234-1450

Fax: 202-234-2744E-Mail: icheung@aag.org

www.aag.org

14456 E. Evans AvenueAurora, CO 80014

Phone: 303-337-0513Fax: 303-337-1001

E-Mail: info@gita.orgwww.gita.org

U.S. Department of Labor

Frances Perkins Building200 Constitution Ave

NW,Washington, DC 20210Phone: 1-866-4-USA-DOL

TTY: 1-877-889-5627www.dol.gov

Geospatial. Because everything is somewhere.Geospatial. Because everything is somewhere.

Geospatial Industry Defined

So what exactly is geospatial technology? Based in the fields of geography andcartography, it’s a powerful technology that at its core links data to a geographiclocation. This allows for the management, integration, analysis, and mapping ofgeographic and spatial information. The results help organizations optimize theirplanning, operations, and decision-making capabilities. Geospatial technology is across-cutting, or enabling technology that spans a myriad of diverse industries andoccupations—all of which depend on locational data to perform duties and makecritical business decisions.

GIS: A Powerful Tool

The core technology of the geospatial industry is a geographic informationsystem, or GIS. A GIS uses computer hardware, software, and data to manage,integrate, analyze, and display geospatial information. This allows people tovisualize the data in a much more effective, comprehensive way. For example,the table below lists how people in different par ts of the country refer to softdrinks. This information is meaningful, but see how much more informativeand understandable it is when it is displayed on a map?

In addition to GIS, there are other related professions in the geospatial industry,including remote sensing, GPS technology, computer aided design (CAD), andphotogrammetry. Within these fields there exists a wide range of specialtyoccupations that involve everything from observing and collecting geospatialdata, designing hardware and software, to creating multi-layered maps that canperform spatial analysis and communicate information about a particular placein space and time.

One of the 14 Fastest-Growing Industries

In 2003, President Bush introduced the High Growth Job Training Initiative, acollaborative effor t to help team people with the jobs that are needed. Theinitiative is a strategic effor t to prepare workers to take advantage of new andincreasing job opportunities in high-growth, high-demand, and economicallyvital sectors of the American economy.The High Growth Job Training Initiativeidentified the geospatial industry as one of 14 that is projected to have far-reaching impact on the U.S. economy.

Due in par t to the fact that geospatial technology uses are so widespread anddiverse, the geospatial market is growing at an annual rate of almost 35%, withthe commercial subsection expanding at a rate of 100% per year.This extraor-dinary growth is due to many factors, including the sector’s emerging impor-tance and application in national economic and homeland security interests.The future of the industry is boundless, as more and more organizations dis-cover the powerful benefits that can be realized through the use of this high-tech, cutting-edge technology.

Geospatial—Where the Jobs Are

The explosive growth in the use of geospatial technology has created strongdemand for qualified workers in all areas of the geospatial industry. The edu-cation needed to enter this fast-paced field range from technical trainingcourses to a four-year undergraduate degree. In addition to job opportunitiesbeing plentiful, these highly sought-after professionals are rewarded with theaverage salaries listed below.

The following are annual salaries of actual geospatial professionals at variousorganizations and geographic locations*:

*Please note, these numbers donot represent average salaries,and in no way do they repre-sent what most companies arepaying their employees.Theseare simply random salaries.

For more information ongeospatial salaries check outURISA’s Salary Survey atwww.urisa.org.

State/Province ■ Pop ■ Coke ■ SodaAlabama 21 32 231Alaska 215 42 266Arizona 361 951 1353Arkansas 76 36 147California 618 2145 11393Colorado 1861 239 930Connecticut 39 77 2659Delaware 17 31 444District of Columbia 24 42 287Florida 201 2489 2434Georgia 79 3248 581

Generic Names for Soft Drinks by County

Pop■ 30%–50%■ 50%–80%■ 80%–100%

Coke■ 30%–50%■ 50%–80%■ 80%–100%

Soda■ 30%–50%■ 50%–80%■ 80%–100%

Other■ 30%–50%■ 50%–80%■ 80%–100%■ No Data

Map by Matthew T. Campbell • East Central University (Oklahoma)

Survey Instrument Person: $31,000

GIS analyst: $47,000

Support Specialist: $50,000

Project Manager: $50,000

Technician: $69,000

GIS Analyst: $70,000

System Developer: $70,000

Database Administrator : $85,000

GIS Data Analyst: $90,000

PLS Surveyor: $100,000