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March 2015
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
I
n 2010, the United States Department of La-
bor identified the geospatial industry as one of
the high-growth sectors in the United States.
Not only does the geospatial industry continue
to grow, but the need for employees prepared with
geospatial skills is recognized by a wide spectrum of
industries, many of which are just beginning to un-
derstand the importance of geospatial tools to sup-
port their day-to-day business needs (U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor, 2010). In addition, the Presidential
Management Fellow Program lists “Geospatial Anal-
ysis/Geographic Information Systems” as one of the
STEM disciplines required to help fill the skill gap
in the U.S. workforce (U.S. Office of Personnel Man-
agement, 2014). Employers often maintain that the
broad-based need for geospatial skills is perhaps
analogous to the 1980s demand for word processing
and spreadsheet skills.
Virginia’s geospatial industry is nationally recog-
nized. In 2004, Thrall and Campins conducted an
analysis of geospatial firms by state. Their analy-
sis found that in terms of the importance of geospa-
tial technology firms (number of geospatial firms/
all firms), Virginia ranks third in the nation. How-
ever, Virginia employers report that they are often
forced to hire employees from outside the state be-
cause its existing geospatial workforce does not meet
their needs (McLeod et al., 2007). Job growth in
Virginia’s geospatial industry is not only limited to
the Northern Virginia/DC, Richmond, and Tidewa-
ter regions, where the need is magnified by federal,
state, and local government demands. Municipalities
throughout Virginia recognize the need for employees
with geospatial skills for planning, engineering, tax
assessment, drinking and waste water distribution,
and emergency management. Furthermore, state
school systems recognize the value of employees with
geospatial skills for delineating school attendance
zones, mapping the distribution of residents’ income
for federal subsidies, and bus routing. Other indus-
tries such as healthcare, retail stores, and insurance
companies have also recognized the power of geospa-
tial technologies to identify and meet the needs of
their customers.
Virginia Tech and its partners (Figure 1) have es-
tablished various programs across Virginia’s edu-
cational pipeline to address geospatial educational
needs. James Madison University, the Virginia Space
Grant Consortium, and the Virginia Geographic Alli-
ance have other programs addressing this need. Vir-
giniaView, a member of AmericaView
