Advancing Spatial Information Infrastructures
Innovating Methods and Technologies to Unlock the Value of Geospatial Data
Spatial data sets are essentia for environmental planning, smart mobility, renewable energy forecasting, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and risk management, and many other applications. Our mission is to promote the accessibility and use of spatio-temporal data by innovating the methods and technologies for creating, managing, sharing, analyzing and visualizing the derived information.
52°North pursues three interrelated disciplines.
- Research Data Infrastructures: The development of RDIs is based on 52°North’s experience in Spatial Data and Spatial Information Infrastructures (SDI/SII). A key component is the provision of Analysis Ready Data (ARD) for subsequent processing and analysis workflows. This is closely related to Spatial Data Science.
- Spatial Data Science: The true value of existing data sets can only be unlocked by transforming data into information. Using classical and modern machine learning (ML) approaches, we facilitate this transition.
- SDI Innovations: This addresses the technical solutions used to bring SDI and analysis to life. The research and development of new SDI architectures and concepts on modern IT systems facilitates the discovery of the true potential of spatial data.
Enabling the efficient flow, management and visualization of research data.
We believe that applied research is best complemented by developing operational solutions that create tangible added value. This combination transforms scientific results into relevant innovations. 52°North supports the development of operational solutions by offering professional services, including training, consulting, software engineering, and data analysis.
A central idea is co-developing solutions with our project partners, customers, and a wider community. This enables us to address real-world problems with our innovations.
How we work
We conduct applied research. Our work starts with identifying and understanding real-world problems and associated innovation needs in selected application domains and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures. We then identify and discuss new approaches, applying common research methods to validate our ideas. Much of our work involves experimental software development, which leads to prototypes that can be refined into operational solutions in collaboration with the developer community. A particular focus is the evaluation and adaptation of new approaches in the context of current GeoIT trends.
