CASE STUDY - GEOCOMPUTATION:It may sound like Orwellian technology but, with ever-growing possibilities and applications, geocomputation is a huge area for scientific growth and may change the way we live.

GEOCOMPUTATION HAS been named alongside biotechnology and nanotechnology as a key growth area. World class expertise in the area can be found in NUI Maynooth, where the National Centre for Geocomputation (NCG) is located.

Established in 2004, the NCG has developed into the leading Irish centre for research in computational issues concerning spatial data.

Having started with just four people, the Centre now employs a team of 25, including researchers, PhD candidates and support staff and is continuing to expand, according to Professor Stewart Fotheringham, an SFI research professor and director of the NCG.

"We moved into a brand new building four years ago but we are now growing out of that so we will move two years from now," says Fotheringham.

Indeed the NCG is now among the world leaders in this rapidly expanding area. "We have signed a memorandum of agreement with eight other institutions worldwide. Geocomputation is a huge growth area in China, Japan, Canada and the UK."

Spatial data contains locational information as well as attribute information and most data sets are now recognised as being spatial, explains Fotheringham, who worked in the US and Canada before bringing his expertise to Maynooth.

"It aids with the location of things and people," he says.

Examples of the use of spatial data include tracking of objects such as security tags, used as anti-theft devices in shops; or also to track people, such as prisoners on day release.

GPS is another use of spatial data sets that is becoming more and more widespread in its use, as is satellite navigation which is also rapidly growing in popularity. "The receivers used have become so cheap and so small that they are now increasingly prevalent," explains Fotheringham.

Another reason for geocomputation's continued popularity is its application in a wide range of areas, he says. As geocomputation can aid in the mapping of environmentally sensitive areas, the NCG works closely with the Environmental Protection Agency.

"It can be used for tracking climate change, ground cover change and monitoring air pollution," explains Fotheringham. Other uses include monitoring the spread of disease or analysing crime patterns, he adds.

"Internationally, although not so much in Ireland yet, police are using quite sophisticated devices to monitor crime," he says. The NCG's research accomplishments over the past year have been related to all these areas.

The vast quantity of spatial data generated by the use of geocomputational technology has led to the NCG developing new computer algorithms for statistical analysis of the data.

"We need these for processing because these technologies really capture huge amounts of data and we need to make sense of it. For example, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) equipment capture millions of points in minutes and all this data has to be processed somehow."

Tracking anything and everything is a concept that sounds futuristic, but is slowly becoming a modern reality, admits Fotheringham.

"It's called location-based services and it's starting to happen. You will have a device in your hand and it will tell you what you are actually looking at. We are still a few years away from that but that is certainly the road things are taking," he says.

Indeed, tracking people via their mobile phone is already possible, he adds.

"That's kind of scary but it's where society is going. We have the technology to do all this, recording the locations of people and then transferring that information digitally to a remote device."

The Centre has also developed a new computer algorithm for the automatic creation of a set of over 20,000 Small Areas for data reporting in Ireland which, if adopted, will create a new set of reporting units for census data in Ireland.

The NCG has recently been awarded another €7m in research funding over a five year period from SFI to establish a Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) in Advanced Geotechnologies. The Cluster is a consortium of diverse departments drawn from NUI Maynooth, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin Institute of Technology and University College Dublin.

In addition to location based services, one of the main focuses of the Cluster will be advanced research into sensor technology."These are devices that record information about things but also record location at the same time. We will be looking at even more advanced applications and uses of sensor integration," explains Fotheringham.

The research carried out at the NCH is of huge relevance to society, he explains.

"Although we are working with cutting edge technologies, all of these things are designed to work on very real world and important application areas."