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A STUDY ON GEOSPATIAL INDUSTRY SIZE IN CHINA
Ershun Zhong, Li Liu
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11 A, Datun Road,Chaoyang
District, Beijing, 100101, RR. China
KEY WORDS: Geospatial Industry, China, Industry Survey, Industry Size
ABSTRACT: With the development of its economy in China, the demand for geospatial applications in various fields has been
greatly increased in recent years. And the geospatial Industry has been emerged as new and active factor in information service sector.
During the past ten years, thousands of companies and institutes have involved in the business for technology development and
provide services. It is important both for the government and business managers to understand the general situation of the industry,
such as its size and work population, etc. A research was carried out for the geospatial industry with the support of the State Bureau of
Mapping and Surveying (SBMS) of China recently. Within the research, we have conducted an industrial survey with the assistant of
SBMS, and interviewed key players in the industry, and through documentary study and analysis, and finally we obtain some basic
data of the China’s geospatial industry. In 2006, the geospatial industry of China, including the disciplines of surveying, mapping,
remote sensing, photogrammetry, geographic information systems and car navigation, was over 40 billion Yuan (about $5.3 billion).
And there were over 10,000 companies and institutes with at least of 300,000 people working in this industry. The study analyzes the
geospatial industry of China in a wide range based on the study.
1. BACKGROUND
With the development of its economy in China, the demand for
geospatial applications in various fields has been greatly
increased in recent years. The market of geospatial technology,
including the disciplines of surveying, mapping, remote sensing,
photogrammetry, geographic information systems and car
navigation, has been greatly increased during past ten years.
And now, the geospatial technology is rapidly becoming an
indispensable part of information industry in the country. As the
technology affects to many business sectors and is involved in
many departments, and also as it will be an even greater surge
for the industry, it has been attracting attention from both
government policy makers and business people in the country.
There is a series of questions related to the industry need to be
addressed. How big is the industry? How many people working
in the industry? And what is the industry structure? While it is
quite difficult to answer these questions since there are no
unified and authoritative definition and no statistical indictor
system of geospatial industry in the country.
Some organizations and companies have made researches on
global or regional geospatial industry size or its branches. For
example, NO A A & ACCRES & NASA made a survey on
American spatial industry in 2000(Charles Mondello,2004).The
Department of Labor (DOL) of the United States published an
estimate value of American spatial industry size in 2004.
Canada GIAC made a survey on Canada spatial industry size in
2004. These practices provide reference to our study and survey
in China’s geospatial industry.
In China, a number of studies on geospatial industry had been
carried out both by organizations and individuals. In 2005, the
State Bureau of Mapping and Surveying (SBMS) of China, a
policymaker and management body for mapping related
business in the country, conducted a statistic on mapping and
surveying industry and obtained the value (12 billion Yuan)
which is the only authoritative data of geospatial related
industry in China. The National Remote Sensing Center
(NRSCC), GIS Software Testing Qualifications Board of the
Ministry of Science and Technology, and the GIS Association of
China had conducted surveys on GIS related industry in 2003.
Cao Chong (2001), Zhou Ruxin (2004) and other scholars also
have estimated and forecasted the GNSS industry size. Chinese
Center of Information Industry Development (CCID) releases
the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) market size
yearly. But up to now, there is no authoritative and overall
statistical data for geospatial industry in the country.
Much of the above study on geospatial industry size refers to
one branch of industry and mainly uses questionnaire survey
method. The questionnaire survey method reflects the
approximate output value of the entire industrial through a
certain number of samples, therefore it exists inevitable
sampling error. If the sampling number is certain, the broader
the survey scope, the greater the error. If the survey scope is
certain, the fewer the selected samples, the greater the error
(suppose the obtained value from questionnaire survey is true).
Therefore, the study tries to narrow the scope of survey down
by dividing the industry into small parts, and at the same time,
selecting more samples to reduce error. Furthermore, the study
also uses other research methods such as on-the-spot
investigation, comparison, analysis and verification, etc. After
obtaining the output value of the industry, the study estimates
the working population and companies and institutes number of
China’s geospatial industry.
2. RESEARCH SCOPE AND METHOD
The geospatial industry acquires, integrates, manages, analyzes
maps, distributes, and uses geographic, temporal and spatial
information and knowledge. The industry includes basic and
applied research, technology development, education, and
applications to address the planning, decision-making, and
operational needs of people and organizations of all types
(AAG&GITA, 2006). According to SBMS, geospatial industry
is a kind of high-technology industry which is an integration of
modem surveying technology and information technology. It
uses geospatial technology to produce and develop geospatial
information resource, provides geoinformation service, and
operates geoinformation products. Geospatial industry includes
all the companies and institutes which refer to the related
hardware, technology, service and products (SBMS, 2006).