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Rudolf Staiger (president of FIG) shares his thoughts on geospatial, including market trends and technology drivers as well as the challenges and impacts of COVID-19.
What was the impact of COVID-19?
The International Federation of Surveyors’ (FIG) mission is to support and promote the profession of geospatial surveying. We promote our non-profit and nongovernmental organization through a variety of channels and platforms. FIG Working Weeks are our annual event. We also organize the FIG Congress every four years. COVID-19 meant that the Working Week 2020 had to be cancelled. Instead, it was transformed into a virtual Working Week by our Dutch colleagues in 2021. It was a huge success and almost everyone expressed the desire for a second meeting. COVID-19 helped us to understand that videoconferences are an effective way to work on a specific task and can replace meetings. This means that in-person meetings are less likely to be required, but they can still be used. The biggest problem is currently the uncertainty surrounding future events such as who will be allowed to travel and financial risks. We knew many FIG members were struggling in 2020 so we reduced FIG membership fees 20% as a once-off gesture in 2021.
What do you consider the key market trend for the next few years?
The key market trends in surveying and geospatial are scalable cloud applications combined with new sensor platforms, such as drones or mobile scanning device in an automated or autonomous operating mode. Digitalization has always been an important topic on our profession’s agenda and this will continue in the future.
What technological driver do believe will be the most important in the next few years?
Artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Thingss (IoT), as well as distributed and scalable software applications are the key technological drivers. Future technology will see wireless communication play a greater role.
What do you see as the biggest challenge in the near future
COVID-19 must be defeated. There are many aspects to this. It has medical, human and economic implications. There are indications that the poorer countries and regions are being affected more than the wealthier parts of our world. In other words, the wealthier countries should be more supportive of the poorer areas of our world in the future than ever before. You could get the impression from the daily news that other pressing issues such as climate change, sea-level rise, and fossil fuels are not on our radar screens. We need to get back to solving these problems. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are still on the agenda. A FIG Task Force is currently working on ways FIG can contribute to the SDGs. Our yearly event will be held in a hybrid format. The challenge for the future is to find the ideal post-COVID event format. Most people regard a hybrid format – in which visitors can attend in person or virtually – as the most obvious answer. Hybrid events present many challenges, including higher production costs and lower registration fees, consideration of different time zones, and more complex simultaneous interaction between the virtual audience as well as the on-site attendees.
Companies and organizations must urgently contribute to a safer, more sustainable world because of the climate crisis. What is your vision for this?
The majority of the global players in the surveying and geospatial industry are high-tech companies with powerful R&D departments. They would love to help create a safer, more sustainable world by developing innovative products. To make sustainable solutions more appealing and worthwhile, there are incentives. Once there is a legal and economic framework for sustainable products, the industry in general – and the geospatial sector in particular – will deliver!
Rudolf Staiger
Since 2019, Rudolf Staiger is the president of FIG. Since 2019, Rudolf Staiger has been the president of FIG. He was previously vice-president of FIG between 2011 and 2018, and chaired FIG Commission 5 (Positioning and Measurement), from 2007 through 2011. Staiger teaches surveying engineering at Bochum’s University of Applied Sciences. His areas of interest include instrumentation, calibration and data analysis. He has previously worked six years as a systems engineering, product manager, and software developer in the industry at KERN (both in Switzerland). He taught surveying engineering at the University of Essen, Germany (from 1994 to 2005).
