Geospatial data are central to the challenges and opportunities for science and society that big data provide.
Geospatial data derive from a rapidly expanding array of sources that include sensors (from satellites, to cameras and other sensing devices carried by UAVs, to distributed sensors monitoring energy consumption, pollution, traffic, and more with smart cities), GPS enabled devices (in vehicles, smart phones, cameras, human wearable devices, and even ones small enough to mount on migrating songbirds), citizen science efforts producing volunteered geospatial data, address-linked public health and many other records, retail transactions, and location-linked social media posts.
As geospatial data become more ubiquitous, big digital geospatial data has become an essential part of geographic analysis.