GIS and Safe City: Modern Technologies in State Service

Russian market of geoinformational technologies is rapidly developing. According to industry experts’ estimates, annual market growth rates in 2011–2012 amounted to about 20%. In money terms, the market volume in 2012 reached 1.5 billion dollars. According to preliminary estimates, in 2013 this indicator continued to grow and exceeded 1.7 billion dollars. It should be noted that by growth rates the Russian sector of geoinformational technologies outruns the European one, which grows, on average, by 10–15% a year.

The number of main users of geoinformational databases and spatial information generation and processing systems in Russia includes oil and gas companies and public authorities (EMERCOM, State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, Internal Forces). However, recently the demand for such products on the part of the private sector has grown. Thanks to successful implementation of large-scale public projects, the geoinformational system was refilled with significant quantity of available spatial data that can be of interest for companies of different economy fields. For example, in 2012 170 new companies became customers of Data+ and Esri CIS Consortium, the share of which is up to 45% of the market in the segment of corporate GIS.

GIS is successfully used not only for support of cadaster processes, planning of construction works or field surveys, but also for a wider range of tasks including security and public order problems. Modern software and hardware suites based on using GIS data are implemented by law enforcement authorities of many countries to monitor the public situation, to promptly disclose law infringement and to search for criminals. The list of useful functions of such suites is long — from the capability of simple downloading of data about the point of interest to forecasting consequences of various events: nature and man-made catastrophes, military conflicts and clashes.

Definitely, the geoinformational system is not the only data source for such complex software and hardware systems, however, information about local features and the facilities situated in the area is often used as the starting point for development of action plans of different services: EMERCOM, fire brigades and police. In 2012 public authorities of the Russian Federation acted as consumers of a number of GIS-products. For example, the Special-Purpose Centre (SPC) for Organization of Road Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs purchased a geoinformational system, which contains data about the road transport network of RF, statistical information about accidents, etc. Thanks to use of this system SPC will be able to follow movement of vehicles in real time, plan special operations, etc.

Besides, in 2013 the Ministry of Internal Affairs awarded a contract for purchase of another software and hardware suite that uses GIS data for the total sum of 932 million rubles. According to industry specialists, in the nearest years the need of the public sector of the Russian Federation in geoinformational technologies will grow, which will influence the dynamics of basic market indicators of the Russian GIS market, as public authorities traditionally act as major buyers of the given product. Besides, the share of private companies not included in the oil and gas sector will increase: a significant growth of the number of orders placed by such business structures, as it was stated earlier, can be observed since 2012.