Modern GIS: (is) Mobile GIS

BrianBaldwin · ‎10-21-2024

This is the 6th blog in a 6-part series highlighting the core concepts of a Modern GIS. To view the other blog posts – please visit this page Modern GIS Core Concepts

Over the past few years, Esri’s Education team have been discussing the technology shift and the need for GIS coursework to move from desktop-centric patterns to those that include the web. Desktop GIS is still an integral part of the story – but it is no longer the focus of the story. Desktop GIS is vital for data management, advanced analysis, and cartographic production – but many of those workflows are now part of a web-based context. Desktop tools can now seamlessly consume web-based services published by authoritative geospatial agencies and individuals across the globe. Desktop GIS can publish map services and layers to the cloud – to be consumed by web-based applications and tools, and desktop GIS can edit and manage web-based data and layers.

Through this series, we are asking: So, what does a course look like that focuses on the fundamentals of GIS but adjusts to a more web-centric paradigm?

In this blog, we will be looking at mobile GIS.

Phones

Where are you reading this right now? Are you on your phone? I can almost guarantee at least 60% of you are…

The first iPhone was released in June 2007, and it transformed how people use technology. Maps, charts, reports, websites, were no longer ‘tethered’ to a computer. Just as this shift transformed so many other fields and industries, it has also been transformational for GIS.

The chart below shows the worldwide share of web traffic, by device, from January 2010 to September 2024. Over the past 4 years, mobile client traffic has steadily outpaced desktop traffic. But, this brings up a big issue with the term ‘mobile GIS’.

(source: statcounter.com global stats)

The issue is that ‘mobile GIS’ is most often taught in the context of ‘field data collection’. Teaching students how to capture data and providing that tangible, hands-on experience is fantastic, but it’s only a small fraction of what mobile GIS is.

As depicted in the diagram below, mobile GIS is about viewing and/or collecting data on a mobile device. At times, that workflow needs to support disconnected environments as well. Mobile GIS is about more than just Field Maps and Survey123, there are a wide range of applications that users can utilize to consume and/or collect data on mobile devices.

(source: author)

This blog is going to explore 3 different ways that mobile GIS should be taught as more than just ‘field data collection’:

Mobile first design
Data modelling and design
Connecting students to their communities

It NEEDS to work on my phone

The design of a map or application all comes down to what it needs to accomplish and how it is intended to be used. With that being said, the vast majority of design considerations for maps and applications are still largely built for desktop users. Yet, students need to ensure that their maps and applications are also functional on mobile devices, or occasionally, designed for mobile first.

The majority of Esri’s configurable web applications were designed to be device agnostic, or adaptive. Yet, that doesn’t mean that certain symbology choices (or popups, etc.) will work as well in a mobile format.

The map below uses one of the Instant App templates, which was built with adaptive elements. The info box and time slider resize and adjust to the users screen size.

Using Instant Apps are a good way to get started with testing and thinking about different screens/uses. How does the map look on a phone? Should we adjust or remove certain features? Should the pop-up information be simplified? Students can quickly deploy one application and see how it meets the needs of users on different devices, all through quick changes to the map or application settings.

On the other hand – this dashboard that was created by the City of Deerfield Beach was built with 2 different configurations. When a user loads the dashboard on a mobile device, they will be presented with the ‘smaller’ application that was purpose built for that screen size, while a larger dashboard with additional tools and functionality will load on a desktop.

Providing students this experience, the ability to think through a user’s needs on different devices, test, deploy, and revisit/revise is incredibly valuable. Rather than trusting in the technology to display the right adaptive experience, students can design and provide the visualizations that fit the form, based on the needs. The skills and experience found in designing a mapping application and ensuring that whatever it’s goal, it will support users wherever they use it, is something that would jump off the page/screen of a resume or interview.

The ability to build specific configurations based on screen size or device is a capability also found in Experience Builder, where there are even more options for testing and building ‘device’ specific applications.

Desktop computers have been the primary means of consuming GIS data for years. It’s easy to get complacent and simply view ‘mobile GIS’ as a means of capturing and collecting data. Even if we don’t expose students to mobile GIS as field methods and data capture, ‘mobile GIS’ should be a core tenet for how students learn to think about presenting information.

String? Integer? Double?

Beyond just ‘capturing’ data in the field, there is the more important question of ‘what’ you are capturing. As I am all too aware from a few forays into the field… you want to know REALLY WELL exactly what data you are capturing before you find yourself walking the streets of a neighborhood… and a required field is missing your required choice. Or… you want to build a pie chart that summarizes numeric results… but every field was captured as a string value.

BEFORE students get into the field, I love giving them a problem set and then have them work together to build a schema that they THINK will work. They can work in pairs, build their forms or feature layers, and do some test captures… and then ‘ah ha’ – time for a nice conversation about data design.

Field Maps Designer and Survey123 are great for data capture, but they also provide a great hands-on way to work with and talk about data management (data types, required fields, field lengths, etc.).

Without diving into ArcCatalog, or geodatabases, the short videos below show how using Field Maps Designer, users can explore and create different geometry types (point, line, polygon) and options for the types of attributes that these features will hold (Should we create ‘lists’ to better control for data quality and inputs? Do we need a date or date and time? Should we store the value as a Double or an Integer?).

With a simple drag and drop UI, students can use Field Maps Designer to build the schema for a feature layer.

Before students start capturing or creating data, they need to understand how that information is stored. Survey123 and Field Maps both provide quick web-based tools that allow students to design schemas for features with a quick drag and drop UI.

Get Outside!

While the point of this blog is to encourage faculty to ‘think differently’ about mobile GIS… it’s hard to escape the fact that getting out into the field and capturing data is still a really powerful and useful skill set for students to have.

One of the exercises that I have run for years, has students build a simple land use classification feature (trees, built area, crops, water, etc.), that matches the Sentinel-2 land cover classes. Then, walking around their neighborhood, students capture roughly 20 data points based on the land classes THEY experience and see. Back in the classroom, we can then pull up the Sentinel-2 Land Cover layer from the Living Atlas. How does the data compare? Why are the results different? How was the Sentinel-2 land cover data classified? Spatial resolution anyone?

Or, you have the ability to show students how GIS can truly empower them and their communities. What are issues that they notice or care about? Where are bike lanes? On campus, are there certain areas that students don’t feel safe? Are there lighting issues on campus? Are there areas of the city or town where sidewalks are dangerous (or non-existent)? With how fast forms and features can be built, over the course of one-week students could design a survey tool and capture data along with photos, attributes, and their location. Rather than GIS being some abstract thing that only deals with streets and parcels, it becomes about THEM. It’s a tool that they can use to build out visualizations, analytics, and tell their own stories to lobby for change.

Close

Mobile GIS isn’t just data capture. Mobile is how 60% of the world consumes information.

In GIS courses, we can easily incorporate ‘mobile GIS’ throughout coursework, from data design, to cartography, and of course, to data collection and creation. As the consumption of maps and information in a mobile context continues to overtake desktop computing, we need to ensure that students are equipped the skills and knowledge to build visualizations and applications that meet the needs of (mobile) users today.

Resources

The following is a small subset of resources that you can use as lessons, labs, or supplemental material for a course. Please explore any of these locations further, as there are hundreds of fantastic resources available for incorporating mobile GIS.

Modern GIS: (is) Mobile GIS

Phones

It NEEDS to work on my phone

String? Integer? Double?

Get Outside!

Close

Resources

Esri Academy

Learn

Book/Texts

Documentation/Tutorials

Other