Regularly, geodesists at international colloquium wonder what is the next big step in geodesy (see Geodesy and its future, A. Dermanis & F. Sanso /the role of geodesy – C. Rizos – FIG 2012). If we exclude engineering applications associated with the rise of GNSS and all the new constellations (GLONASS, Beidou, Gallileo,…) which will indubitably promote new technological niches in the Location Based Services market beyond navigation and tracking applications.

We are then left with the applications of geodesy to geosciences a.k.a environmental geodesy- e.g. . the study of reference frame in geophysics with plate tectonics movement & earth rotation; oceanography with multiple applications including the measurements of tides, height datum and bathymetry; in climate change – geodesists estimate the sea-level rise around the world. Nowadays, geodesists need to analyse different satellite missions (GNSS, GRACE, satellite altimetry …) and correlate various observations in order to produce robust models and describe/discover new natural phenomena. Thus, does the future of environmental geodesy rely on AI and big data algorithms to process & analyse large amount of data and build empirical models used in the analysis/prediction of natural phenomena? With the need to monitor closely climate change, geodesists will be involved in studies involving the data analysis of future satellite missions (see my previous question on “big data and climate change”).

Last but not least, with the willingness of exploring Mars and other planets, a future field of interest may be the application of geodesy in the analysis of geophysical phenomena occurring on those planets…. What do you think?