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Geospatial Analyst
Analyzes geographic data using GIS and satellite imagery — maps everything from deforestation to urban growth.
Did you know?
Analysts use satellite images to track illegal gold mining in the Amazon, such as about 500 hectares cleared inside a Colombian national park.
How subjects help
- Geography: Map how forests, rivers and cities change using satellite images.
- Mathematics: Turn the round Earth into flat maps and measure distances on them accurately.
- Computer Science: Use mapping software to layer data like roads, flood zones and schools.
- Environmental Science: Spot illegal logging or shrinking glaciers by comparing images over the years.
A famous name
Roger Tomlinson: Known as the 'father of GIS'; built the first computer mapping system for Canada in the 1960s.
Try it yourself: Make a grid-reference treasure hunt
- Draw a bird's-eye map of one room or your garden. Rule a grid over it and number the columns along the bottom and the rows up the side.
- Mark a few landmarks, like the door or the sofa, and add an arrow showing north.
- Hide the object somewhere easy to reach, then write its grid reference: the column number first ("along the corridor"), then the row number ("up the stairs").
- Hand over only the map and the grid reference. Did your searcher find it straight away? If not, what would make your map clearer?
Ship officers and harbour pilots plot their position on charts using grid lines, so everyone on the bridge can say exactly where the ship is.
Adapted from Royal Geographical Society: Map skills: Year Six.
Also try: Make and crack a secret code.
Known for it in
USA, Germany, Australia, UK, Netherlands