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Most countries have realized the need for a significant
injection of funding to modernize infrastructure. The US saw
passage of the record bipartisan $1.2 trillion Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Now, as the US moves forward
on its sweeping overhaul of transit, connectivity, energy,
power, and water, one factor will be crucial: geography. We
will need to understand how infrastructure systems relate to
the communities they serve and to the nearby ecosystems that
must also be allowed to thrive.
We need to see what is happening where.
Decision-makers are already taking this geographic approach,
and infrastructure systems are being infused with geospatial
technology including digital twins, sensors, and advanced
analytics. A location context, delivered by modern geographic
information system (GIS) technology, will make future
infrastructure intelligent, data-centric, and dynamic.
