The Harlow Report-GIS
2025 Edition
ISSN 0742-468XSince 1978
On-line Since 2000
GIS News Snippets
For the week of
May 19, 2025
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A “Harlow Report” From May 20, 2024
Navigating the World: The Future of Location-Based Services in 2024
Explore the future of location-based services in 2024. Discover the latest technologies, future outlook, and transformative power of LBS today.
Have you ever thought about how your phone knows exactly where you are, even in a new place? Or how it helps you find the closest coffee shop or navigate through traffic?
Well, get ready because the world of location-based services (LBS) is about to get even more exciting in 2024. But what does that mean for you? Let's explore the latest innovations in LBS and discover how they will change how you experience the world around you.
Technology Trends Shaping LBS in 2024
Read full story at Devdiscourse…
Now back to 2025
5 Free Geospatial Resources
by Chris Harlow
Below is a list of 5 free geospatial resources that provide access to high-quality datasets, tools, and platforms for geospatial data science, mapping, and analysis. Each resource includes a brief description and its primary use case.
1. Natural Earth Data
- Description: A public domain dataset offering global vector and raster map data at various scales (1:10m, 1:50m, 1:110m). Includes administrative boundaries, populated places, physical features, and shaded relief.
- Use Case: Ideal for cartography, historical and political maps, and small-scale visualizations.
- Link: naturalearthdata.com
2. OpenStreetMap (OSM)
- Description: A crowdsourced, open-license map of the world providing detailed vector data like roads, buildings, and land use. Data can be downloaded as shapefiles via services like Geofabrik.
- Use Case: Street-level mapping, urban planning, and geospatial analysis requiring detailed local data.
- Link: openstreetmap.org or geofabrik.de
3. USGS EarthExplorer
- Description: A portal by the U.S. Geological Survey offering free access to satellite imagery (Landsat, MODIS, ASTER), aerial photography, elevation data, and historical maps.
- Use Case: Remote sensing, environmental monitoring, and terrain analysis.
- Link: earthexplorer.usgs.gov
4. NASA Earth Observations (NEO)
- Description: Provides free global datasets focused on climate and environmental data, such as aerosols, chlorophyll, and sea surface temperature, available in JPEG, GeoTIFF, and Google Earth formats.
- Use Case: Climate research, environmental studies, and global change analysis.
- Link:neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov
5. Google Earth Engine (GEE)
- Description: A cloud-based platform with a comprehensive catalog of satellite imagery (e.g., Landsat, Sentinel-2) and geospatial datasets, standardized for easy integration and analysis.
- Use Case: Large-scale geospatial analysis, machine learning, and time-series studies.
- Link: earthengine.google.com
Geospatial Artificial Intelligence: Mapping the Future
by Chris Harlow
Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) is revolutionizing how we analyze and interpret spatial data, blending geospatial technologies with advanced AI techniques.
By integrating machine learning, computer vision, and big data analytics with geographic information systems (GIS), GeoAI enables smarter decision-making across industries like urban planning, environmental management, agriculture, and disaster response.
GeoAI excels at processing vast datasets from satellites, drones, and IoT sensors, extracting actionable insights with unprecedented speed and accuracy. For instance, in urban planning, GeoAI models analyze satellite imagery to monitor infrastructure development, predict traffic patterns, or assess land use changes.
The power of GeoAI lies in its ability to uncover patterns invisible to traditional methods. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) process high-resolution imagery to detect objects or changes, while natural language processing (NLP) integrates unstructured data like social media posts with spatial context for real-time event monitoring, such as during natural disasters. These capabilities enhance response times and resource allocation.
However, GeoAI faces challenges, including data quality issues, computational demands, and ethical concerns like privacy in location-based data. Ensuring unbiased algorithms and equitable access to GeoAI tools is also critical.
As GeoAI evolves, advancements in cloud computing and edge AI will make it more accessible, enabling real-time applications in remote areas. Its potential to address global challenges, from sustainable development to disaster resilience, is immense. By harnessing spatial data with AI, GeoAI is not just mapping the world—it's shaping a smarter, more connected future.
Maxar Launches Raptor, a First-of-Its-Kind Software That Unlocks Next-Gen GPS Resilience for Autonomous Systems
by Maxar Press Release
Raptor vision-based software products use Maxar's unique global 3D data to deliver a breakthrough terrain-based positioning system for drone navigation and sensemaking in GPS-denied environments
Maxar Intelligence, a leading provider of secure, precise geospatial insights, launched Raptor, a powerful software suite that enables autonomous drones to navigate and extract accurate ground coordinates in the absence of GPS. This technology transforms the resilience and reliability of unmanned systems, enabling autonomy at scale across warfighting, humanitarian and commercial operations for customers across the world.
Designed for lightweight integration with any autonomous platform, Raptor products use only a drone's native camera and Maxar's 90 million-plus sq km of global 3D terrain data to help the platform navigate with extreme precision and extract accurate ground coordinates in real-time without GPS. Raptor can also operate at night and in low-terrain environments. No additional hardware required.
“By eliminating reliance on GPS, Raptor software unlocks the full potential of autonomous systems—from powering truly joint multi-domain operations as part of a digital battlefield to large-scale delivery systems in urban areas where knowing the precise coordinates of your drop-off location is critical to getting the job done,” said Peter Wilczynski, Chief Product Officer at Maxar Intelligence. “Raptor will change the game for customers across the defense and commercial sectors. This software uses Maxar's unique 3D global terrain data to ensure that autonomous systems get the job done no matter how much GPS interference they face.”
Read full story at MAXAR…
The Value of GIS for Architecture, Urban Design, and Planning
by ESRI
Explore how location, context, data, and purpose are converging to drive design.
Summary
Architects and urban planners are urged to adopt holistic approaches amid rapid urban growth and climate challenges, prioritizing sustainability and resilience. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is a key tool, integrating location-based data on topography, infrastructure, demographics, and environmental factors.
This enables professionals to analyze sites comprehensively, identifying risks and opportunities early in the design process. GIS supports scenario modeling and 3D visualization, allowing planners to test zoning changes, infrastructure plans, or density impacts interactively, fostering sustainable and equitable urban development. For architects, GIS contextualizes designs within environmental and social frameworks, assessing factors like solar potential, walkability, and community needs. It also enhances stakeholder engagement through interactive web tools.
Beyond projects, GIS aligns designs with city-scale policy and climate goals, creating a shared data environment from concept to construction. Access to authoritative datasets streamlines workflows, enriching decisions with validated information. By providing clarity in complex challenges, GIS empowers architects and planners to design smarter, resilient communities that balance growth with quality of life, ensuring well-informed, transparent, and future-ready outcomes.
Read full story at Architech Magazine…
What's New in ArcGIS IPS (Q2 2025)
by https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/author/preliga
Summary
The May 2025 ArcGIS IPS release enhances indoor positioning with updates to ArcGIS Pro 3.5, ArcGIS IPS Setup 1.7, and ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps 200.7, improving accuracy and user experience. ArcGIS IPS provides real-time indoor location tracking via a blue dot, supporting asset inspections, safety, and wayfinding with ArcGIS Field Maps and ArcGIS Indoors Mobile. The release improves Android device performance and stationary positioning stability.
Adaptive Radio Positioning: A new algorithm enhances accuracy on Android devices by aligning Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Wi-Fi signals with Indoor Positioning Data Service (IPDS) data, addressing issues with lower-quality sensors.
Stand Still Filter: Suppresses signal fluctuations to stabilize the blue dot when stationary.
ArcGIS Pro 3.5: Introduces an IPS Beacon Features parameter in the Generate Indoor Positioning Dataset tool, supporting adaptive radio positioning by including beacon location data in IPDS.
ArcGIS IPS Setup 1.7: Enables onsite configuration of parameters like Path Snapping Distance and Use Apple IPS, with changes applied locally. It also provides detailed positioning data insights in map details.
Native Maps SDKs 200.7: Ensures the Indoor Location Data Source (ILDS) activates only when sensors are available, improving startup reliability.
These enhancements streamline workflows, boost positioning accuracy, and enhance usability for administrators and technicians.
Read full story at Esri Blog…
Industry News
In Government
Does the Federal Government Have a Right to States' Data?
by Julia Edinger
As data management becomes an increasingly important priority for state governments and the people they serve, experts examine what authority the federal government has to access private state information.
Summary
In this excellent in-depth article, Julia Edinger provide insight into a great question: “Does the Federal Government Have a Right to States' Data?” In short, she describes:
A March 2025 executive order (EO) by President Donald Trump, titled “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos,” mandates that state programs funded by the federal government share personal data with federal agencies, raising privacy concerns. The order, which does not specify affected programs or data types, has sparked debate about the federal government's authority to access state data, particularly when privacy promises were made during collection.
Elizabeth Laird of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) highlighted the EO as a “significant shift,” noting potential conflicts with privacy laws like the Privacy Act of 1974 and state-specific protections. At least 14 lawsuits question the legality of this data collection, especially by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). States like Pennsylvania and North Dakota report no direct policy conflicts but emphasize agency-level discretion and legal considerations. Massachusetts, which previously denied federal data requests, restricts voter data access under state law.
Legal experts, like Sophia Cope from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argue that forcing states to comply could be unconstitutional or involve illegal impoundment of funds. Amid public trust issues, state and local agencies are urged to understand their data policies and communicate transparently to safeguard constituent information.
Read full story at Government Technology…
SpaceX Alum Tapped as Interior CIO
by Natalie Alms
Interior is the latest federal agency to undergo leadership turnover in its technology shop since President Trump took office in January.
About a month after the department moved to dismiss several top executives at the Interior Department following their objections to giving the Department of Government Efficiency access to a federal personnel and payroll system, the Interior Department has tapped a SpaceX alum, Paul McInerny, to lead the department's technology.
The new chief information officer worked at billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX for several years, most recently as a senior manager for software automation tools, a role he left in 2020 to work at a lawn care startup, according to his LinkedIn and previous media coverage. McInerny has never worked in the government before.
…Three Interior Department employees confirmed McInerny's new role with Nextgov/FCW. An Interior Department public affairs specialist told Nextgov/FCW that “the Department does not comment on personnel matters” when asked about McInerny's new role.
Read full story at NextGov/FCW…
State and Local Agencies Deploy Artificial Intelligence for Document Processing
by Adam Stone
Officials see the automation of extracting data as a force multiplier
Listen (08:43)
In partnership with the county assessor's office, the King County, Wash., IT team has used artificial intelligence (AI) in a prototype redaction service that can remove sensitive information that may appear in application documents submitted for the senior property tax exemption program.
It has worked successfully on 96% of documents, says Director of Data Strategy and Operations Grace Preyapongpisan. The IT office also uses the software to read through documents and populate a database with information on how people have died.
“For the medical examiner's office, we piloted an effort to use machine learning to essentially extract data elements from medical examiner report transcripts to populate fields in a state database,”she says. This involves scanning and populating information in support of mandatory reporting for drug overdose fatalities.
Read full story at StateTech…
In Technology
Apple Is Reportedly Working on the Hybrid Mac We All Want—and It Could Arrive in 2028
by Roman Loyola
The touch-screen hybrid tablet Mac users have been asking for may finally hit the market.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, 2027 will be a big year for Apple, with a couple of dramatic new iPhone designs, smart glasses, AI servers and Apple Intelligence developments, camera-equipped wearables, and a tabletop robot. But it's the year after that when we may finally see a product a lot of Apple customers have been asking for.
Gurman reported that Apple is working on a “product that will cross a foldable iPad with a touch-screen Mac” that could be revealed in 2028. That's the only thing Gurman says about the product, but based on past reports, we can piece together what this device is so far.
The major hurdle to a touchscreen Mac is the macOS user interface, which is not designed with touch targets in mind. However, it's been reported that at WWDC this June, Apple will introduce major interface changes in macOS 16. These changes will reportedly take cues from visionOS, which will likely make the UI less cursor-centric. It's also rumored that iPadOS 19 will become more Mac-like with multitasking and window management. So if this 2028 device is to be a hybrid Mac-iPad, WWDC will be where it all starts.
Read full story at Macworld…
Forget Browsing. The Agentic AI Internet of Tomorrow Will Find You First
by PYMNTS
Artificial intelligence (AI) could soon herald the biggest internet shake-up since dial-up gave way to WiFi
With Perplexity AI in talks to reach a $14 billion valuation as it seeks to launch its own browser, Comet, to compete with tech giants like Google, AI might already be poised to do to traditional internet and information gateways what WiFi did to the ethernet cable.
At the center of this potential shift are companies like Perplexity, OpenAI and other startups both implicitly and explicitly challenging big tech's long-standing dominance in web access, with the goal of making traditional internet interfaces obsolete thanks to the natural language-based — and increasingly multimodal — capabilities of AI's own digital retrieval dashboards.
Forget clicking through pages of blue links. Today's consumers want answers for their queries, and they want them to be immediate and packaged for consumption. AI can help do that in ways that traditional page rank algorithms and web access browser software often can't.
Read full story at PYMNTS…
New Apple CarPlay Ultra Tested: Hands-On With Every New Feature
by Jack Rix
Not content with owning your wrist, desktop, ears and eyeballs, Apple is about to take over your car
If you own an iPhone and don't drive a car inherited from your grandparents, chances are you'll know all about Apple CarPlay — the now ubiquitous software that lets you mirror your smartphone onto your car's infotainment screen for a familiar-looking and easy-to-use way of accessing navigation apps, podcasts, music, messages and more. Well, that's now officially old-tech because the next-gen CarPlay — CarPlay Ultra — has launched, and we've had a play.
Apple first announced the existence of a next-generation CarPlay system way back in 2022, and then it all went a bit quiet until two videos were released at its 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), offering more details on what it would look like and how it would work. And now in Spring 2025 we've finally got our hands on it … in an Aston Martin DBX 707.
Below we explain all the new features, why Aston got to go first and when you can get your hands on it, but before that we need to understand how this new system operates differently. The old system was simply a mirror of your phone and selected apps. You plugged in or connected wirelessly, all the computing was done on the phone and the car displayed that info like a monitor. Here there's a lot more going on.
Read full story at TopGear…
In Utilities
A Fraction of Proposed Data Centers Will Get Built. Utilities Are Wising Up.
by Brian Martucci
One expert estimated that speculative interconnection requests were five to 10 times more than the number of actual data centers, but the scale of the problem remains elusive.
The U.S. grid is flooded with data center proposals that will never get built. That's making it much more difficult for utilities and grid operators to plan for the future.
“Conservatively, you're seeing five to 10 times more interconnection requests than data centers actually being built,” said Astrid Atkinson, a former Google senior director of software engineering and now co-founder and CEO of grid optimization software provider Camus Energy.
Even relatively short-term data center load growth forecasts are all over the map.
Last year, RAND Corporation's “upper confidence” forecast projected 347 GW of AI-sector power consumption by 2030. But Schneider Electric called that prediction “extreme” in a whitepaper on AI's potential grid impacts last month, which cited more down-to-earth forecasts — under 100 GW — from other reputable observers.
Read full story at UtilityDive…
Canadian Electric Utility Lists Customer Information Stolen by Hackers
by Eduard Kovacs
Nova Scotia Power says a wide range of personal and financial information was stolen in the recent cyberattack
The intrusion was announced to the public by Nova Scotia Power and its parent company Emera in late April, and on May 1 it was revealed that hackers had stolen some customer information.
The company highlighted that the incident did not cause any disruption to electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities.
In an update shared on May 14, Nova Scotia Power said customer information stored on compromised servers was accessed and taken on or around March 19.
The stolen information includes one or more of the following types of data: name, date of birth, phone number, email address, mailing and service addresses, as well as data such as power consumption, service requests, and payment, billing, and credit history.
Read full story at SecurityWeek…
United States and Saudi Arabia Strengthen Alliance with Energy & Critical Mineral Deals
by U s Dep't of Energy
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today signed a Memorandum of Understanding on energy cooperation and a Memorandum of Cooperation on critical minerals with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy H.R.H. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud and H.E. Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on energy cooperation and a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on critical minerals with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy H.R.H. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud and H.E. Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef, respectively. Secretary Wright signed the documents as a member of the United States delegation led by President Donald J. Trump. The intention to sign the MOU was announced during Secretary Wright's trip to Saudi Arabia in April of this year. The signings coincided with President Trump's announcement that he secured a $600 billion investment commitment from Saudi Arabia.
“President Trump and I are excited to unveil two historic deals between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, advancing our shared vision of global energy addition by better developing our energy resources, growing our energy infrastructure, enhancing our research relationships, and more,” Secretary Wright said. “These deals on energy and critical minerals as well as the historic investment commitments made earlier today, forge powerful partnerships that will ensure President Trump's vision of prosperity at home and peace abroad is fully realized.”
“I'd like to express my sincere thank you to H.R.H. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and H.E. Bandar Alkhorayef for weeks of productive dialogue that have made this significant milestone possible. Together, we're building a future of affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the United States, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and our allies around the world.”
Read full story at Energy.gov…