Applications of Geospatial Technologies for Practitioners: An Emerging Perspective of Geospatial Education

Advancement in the Application of Geospatial Technology in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage in South Africa: A Scientometric Review

“…[3] deduced that geospatial technologies should be classified as GIS, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), photogrammetry, remote sensing, cartography, surveying, and other related fields. Aina [2] concurred with Klinkenberg [3] on the definitions. She added devices such as cellular phones, RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and surveillance cameras with embedded technologies that use locational information to the list of geospatial technologies.…”

“…Archaeology is a further field where such technology has been applied [2]. There is an established deep link between geospatial technologies and information communication systems, which has benefitted geomatics fields such as GIS [2]. The above discussion elucidates what this literature review refers to as geospatial technologies.…”

“…Geospatial technology is also recognised as a profession with codes of ethics and specific competence standards [1]. As a profession, geospatial technology, also referred to as geomatics, is a growing multidisciplinary academic field with diverse applications encompassing land surveying, remote sensing, mapping, geographic information systems (GIS), geodesy, and global navigation systems [2]. This multidisciplinary academic field constitutes a geospatial industry defined by the United States Department of Labour as "an information technology field of practice that acquires, manages, interprets, integrates, displays, analyses, or otherwise uses data focusing on the context" [3].…”

“…The fields in which geospatial technologies have been implemented are wide-ranging, including facilities management, precision farming, urban planning, business geographics, security and intelligence, telecommunication, automated mapping, and civil engineering. Archaeology is a further field where such technology has been applied [2]. There is an established deep link between geospatial technologies and information communication systems, which has benefitted geomatics fields such as GIS [2].…”

“…Such phenomena include seasonal hunter-gatherer camps within a landscape, the hierarchy of settlements within a region, the location of artisanal mines in an area, and many others that exploit spatial links, patterns, and relationships [4]. According to Aina [2], Wheatley and Gillings [4], the study of spatial archaeological data has grown from descriptive (tabulated and plotted on simple flat maps) to explanatory (explanation of spatial patterns and relations). Wheatley and Gillings [4] further attributed this development to emerging robust geospatial technologies capable of handling high volumes of spatial data with high resolutions and processing speeds.…”