Mobile devices offer productivity benefits for GIS, especially in the field. Cartographers both novice and professionals have taken advantage of this handheld technology to turn it into a useful GIS tool. The popularity of smartphones such as the iPhone as a data gathering device through apps is growing.
On a global scale land professionals like real estate agents and city planners have turned to this technology to assist them when they are out on the field. In fact, in the United Kingdom, O2 partnered with three companies to bring innovative solutions to mapping needs. One of those who joined this collaborative project, Telmap, represented by their CEO Oren Nissim said, “There is clearly high consumer demand for mobile mapping and navigation services, demonstrated by the volume of mobile phones released with an embedded GPS. We are very proud to be working with O2 and believe that, together, we can showcase our Navigator product and perfectly position it to take advantage of this growing market as well as enhance the customer experience.”
To get you started, we’ve summed up below five highly recommended GIS and mapping applications on the market for your iPhone.
Mobile Geography Tools
1. WolfGIS is free to download and compatible with iPhone 3GS and up. It is recommended for those who need to perform computations remotely. How is it helpful?
- It gives you access to detailed information of land along with the GIS functions that you’re looking for.
- Timber managements, real estate, farming, construction and even government companies will find the user interface (UI) easy to use. You only need to bring the property up on the app using its Tract Lock feature. It will take out the necessary computations regarding the boundaries of any property.
- It’s also easy to zipped data through shape files to authorized personnel. With your mobile phone, you can access this cloud storage service so you can save and retrieve the files anytime and anywhere you are.
2. Maps 3D – GPS Tracks for Bike, Hike, Ski and Outdoor is perfect for extreme athletes presents a completely new view of the world on your iPhone screen.
- It gives you that precise and important information using its 3D elevation model programmed.
- Apart from the 3D display, it provides you with an accurate altimeter that displays your elevation. However, you may find some difficulties when trying to sync it with Facebook or Twitter.
3. GIS Pro is a reliable tool when on the site. It works whether you’re connected to the internet or not.
- It has cached or downloaded topographic maps, street maps and satellite images stored on the device. You can even use these to draw lines that will serve as your guide when planning your pipe laying or linear projects.
- Using your mobile device you can get more information by checking the preloaded templates and import or export them to a computer.
- With its advanced feature, expect a pricey tag on this app at $99.99 per installation.
4. Make your maps come alive using a fast UI and cached maps on ArcGIS.
- The app takes out the uncertainty of knowing where you are located. It comes with accurate aerial photographs of the site.
- One thing that you may not appreciate is the off view presented when you are offline. The downloaded maps and other data gathered cannot be retrieved once you turn it off.
- However, its simple design makes it stable. Therefore users experience fewer crashes compared to the more complicated and unnecessary tools.
5. Integrity GIS is a premiere application for iDevices. It allows you to use the available data anytime, anywhere.
- It is packed with features that can deliver the results they need. The only thing that you have to do is find the parameter including the layers that you want to present using its search box. Once it presents the results, you can look at the legends on your map to familiarize yourself quickly, especially with the symbols used.
- These are only five of the best for the iPhone users. We’re certain that there are other applications out there that can provide similar or better results. If you one that you want to recommend, leave a comment below and let us know.
About the Author:
Nadia Hyeong often looks at mobile phones, social media, music and gadgets and tech. Her love for reto games takes up most of her spare time. You can always find her on Google+ or Twitter.
