As of March 2021, Waze was the mobile GPN navigation app found to collect the largest amount of data from global iOS users, with 21 data points collected across all examined segments. Maps.me collected a total of 20 data points from its users, including five data points on contact information. Hiking and trail GPS map Gaia followed, with 13 data points, respectively.

3D Map Data Collection Sensor Market Outlook

According to our latest research, the global 3D Map Data Collection Sensor market size reached USD 4.2 billion in 2024, with a robust year-on-year growth rate. The market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 13.7% from 2025 to 2033, culminating in a forecasted market value of USD 13.1 billion by 2033. The major growth driver for this market is the increasing demand for high-resolution geospatial data across industries such as automotive, urban planning, and environmental monitoring, propelled by advancements in sensor technologies and the proliferation of autonomous systems worldwide.

The primary growth factor fueling the 3D Map Data Collection Sensor market is the rapid adoption of autonomous vehicles and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) in the automotive sector. As automotive manufacturers strive to enhance safety and navigation capabilities, the integration of LiDAR, radar, and high-definition cameras has become indispensable. These sensors are critical for real-time 3D mapping, object detection, and environmental perception, enabling vehicles to operate autonomously with greater accuracy and reliability. Additionally, the surge in demand for electric vehicles and connected mobility solutions further amplifies the need for sophisticated 3D mapping technologies, driving sustained investment and innovation in sensor development.

Another significant growth catalyst is the widespread application of 3D mapping in urban planning, construction, and infrastructure management. Governments and private enterprises are increasingly leveraging 3D map data collection sensors for smart city initiatives, land surveying, and construction project management. These sensors enable accurate spatial data acquisition, facilitating efficient planning, design, and monitoring of urban environments. The integration of aerial and mobile platforms with advanced sensor arrays allows for rapid, large-scale data collection, supporting infrastructure development and environmental sustainability goals. As urbanization accelerates globally, the demand for precise 3D mapping solutions is expected to rise exponentially.

Technological advancements in sensor miniaturization, data processing, and cloud-based analytics are also propelling the market forward. The evolution of compact, high-performance sensors has made it feasible to deploy 3D map data collection systems across diverse platforms, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), terrestrial vehicles, and handheld devices. Enhanced data fusion techniques and artificial intelligence-driven analytics are enabling real-time processing and interpretation of vast geospatial datasets, unlocking new use cases in agriculture, disaster management, and environmental monitoring. These innovations are reducing operational costs, improving data accuracy, and expanding the accessibility of 3D mapping technologies to a broader spectrum of end-users.

Regionally, North America continues to dominate the 3D Map Data Collection Sensor market, accounting for the largest revenue share in 2024, followed closely by Europe and Asia Pacific. The presence of leading technology companies, robust R&D investments, and early adoption of autonomous solutions are key factors contributing to the region's market leadership. Meanwhile, the Asia Pacific region is witnessing the fastest growth, driven by rapid urbanization, infrastructure development, and increasing investments in smart city projects. Emerging markets in Latin America and the Middle East & Africa are also exhibiting promising growth potential, supported by government initiatives and expanding industrial applications.

Sensor Type Analysis

The 3D Map Data Collection Sensor market is segmented by sensor type into LiDAR, radar, camera, GNSS, ultrasonic, and others, each playing a pivotal role in the acquisition of spatial data. LiDAR sensors have emerged as the most prominent segment due to their exceptional ability to generate high-resolution, acc

Layers of geospatial data include contours, boundaries, land cover, hydrography, roads, transportation, geographic names, structures, and other selected map features.

This data collection of the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) consists of Lidar Point Cloud (LPC) projects as provided to the USGS. These point cloud files contain all the original lidar points collected, with the original spatial reference and units preserved. These data may have been used as the source of updates to the 1/3-arcsecond, 1-arcsecond, and 2-arcsecond seamless 3DEP Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The 3DEP data holdings serve as the elevation layer of The National Map, and provide foundational elevation information for earth science studies and mapping applications in the United States. Lidar (Light detection and ranging) discrete-return point cloud data are available in LAZ format. The LAZ format is a lossless compressed version of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) LAS format. Point Cloud data can be converted from LAZ to LAS or LAS to LAZ without the loss of any information. Either format stores 3-dimensional point cloud data and point attributes along with header information and variable length records specific to the data. Millions of data points are stored as a 3-dimensional data cloud as a series of geo-referenced x, y coordinates and z (elevation), as well as other attributes for each point. Additonal information about the las file format can be found here: https://www.asprs.org/divisions-committees/lidar-division/laser-las-file-format-exchange-activities. All 3DEP products are public domain.

USGS Structures from The National Map (TNM) consists of data to include the name, function, location, and other core information and characteristics of selected manmade facilities across all US states and territories. The types of structures collected are largely determined by the needs of disaster planning and emergency response, and homeland security organizations. Structures currently included are: School, School:Elementary, School:Middle, School:High, College/University, Technical/Trade School, Ambulance Service, Fire Station/EMS Station, Law Enforcement, Prison/Correctional Facility, Post Office, Hospital/Medical Center, Cabin, Campground, Cemetery, Historic Site/Point of Interest, Picnic Area, Trailhead, Vistor/Information Center, US Capitol, State Capitol, US Supreme Court, State Supreme Court, Court House, Headquarters, Ranger Station, White House, and City/Town Hall. Structures data are designed to be used in general mapping and in the analysis of structure related activities using geographic information system technology. Included is a feature class of preliminary building polygons provided by FEMA, USA Structures. The National Map structures data is commonly combined with other data themes, such as boundaries, elevation, hydrography, and transportation, to produce general reference base maps. The National Map viewer allows free downloads of public domain structures data in either Esri File Geodatabase or Shapefile formats. For additional information on the structures data model, go to https://www.usgs.gov/ngp-standards-and-specifications/national-map-structures-content.

There will be two different software applications for the collecting of data which will be explored in this lesson, Survey 123 and Field Maps. There are other uses of survey apps which will be discussed, such as the registrations for meetings.There are other field data collection software that might have been used in the past such as Esri Collector or an open source data collection app. These two applications, Survey 123 and Field Maps will provide the functional foundations required to do field data work.In addition to exploring these two applications, webhooks will be explored within Survey123. A webhook provides an interfaces between software packages and a way of transferring data and information. There are both free and commercial software that are designed to create webhooks. For example, when you fill out a registration form for an event, and you receive an email confirming your registration has been completed, this is done using a webhook.

Guide for field data collection using NPS web maps. 2023 version.

The China Maps Bibliographic Database is an historical collection of bibliographic information for more than 400 maps of China. The information resides in a searchable database and includes title, author/editor, publisher, location, projection, year, elevation, land cover type (forest, desert, marsh/swamp, grassland), vegetation, transportation (roads, railroads), rivers and lakes, spatial coverage (provincial, county, township), and language for maps published from 1765 to 1994. The information is available in both English and Chinese (GB Code for Chinese Characters). This data set is produced in collaboration with the University of Washington as part of the China in Time and Space (CITAS) project and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

This collection includes radio science digital map files for Vesta.

The USGS Transportation downloadable data from The National Map (TNM) is based on TIGER/Line data provided through U.S. Census Bureau and supplemented with HERE road data to create tile cache base maps. Some of the TIGER/Line data includes limited corrections done by USGS. Transportation data consists of roads, railroads, trails, airports, and other features associated with the transport of people or commerce. The data include the name or route designator, classification, and location. Transportation data support general mapping and geographic information system technology analysis for applications such as traffic safety, congestion mitigation, disaster planning, and emergency response. The National Map transportation data is commonly combined with other data themes, such as boundaries, elevation, hydrography, and structure ...

This collection consists of ASCII files containing derived magnetic field maps and equivalent source dipole arrays for the crustal magnetic field of Mercury. Zero values (mainly found along the map edges) indicate no useful data.

The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a feature-based database that interconnects and uniquely identifies the stream segments or reaches that make up the nation's surface water drainage system. NHD data was originally developed at 1:100,000-scale and exists at that scale for the whole country. This high-resolution NHD, generally developed at 1:24,000/1:12,000 scale, adds detail to the original 1:100,000-scale NHD. (Data for Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands was developed at high-resolution, not 1:100,000 scale.) Local resolution NHD is being developed where partners and data exist. The NHD contains reach codes for networked features, flow direction, names, and centerline representations for areal water bodies. Reaches are also defined on waterbodies and the approximate shorelines of the Great Lakes, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. The NHD also incorporates the National Spatial Data Infrastructure framework criteria established by the Federal Geographic Data Committee. For additional information on NHD, go to https://www.usgs.gov/national-hydrography.

The China County-Level Data on Population (Census) and Agriculture, Keyed To 1:1M GIS Map consists of census, agricultural economic, and boundary data for the administrative regions of China for 1990. The census data includes urban and rural residency, age and sex distribution, educational attainment, illiteracy, marital status, childbirth, mortality, immigration (since 1985), industrial/economic activity, occupation, and ethnicity. The agricultural economic data encompasses rural population, labor force, forestry, livestock and fishery, commodities, equipment, utilities, irrigation, and output value. The boundary data are at a scale of one to one million (1:1M) at the county level. This data set is produced in collaboration with the University of Washington as part of the China in Time and Space (CITAS) project, University of California-Davis China in Time and Space (CITAS) project, and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

This is a tiled collection of the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) and is one meter resolution. The 3DEP data holdings serve as the elevation layer of The National Map, and provide foundational elevation information for earth science studies and mapping applications in the United States. Scientists and resource managers use 3DEP data for hydrologic modeling, resource monitoring, mapping and visualization, and many other applications. The elevations in this DEM represent the topographic bare-earth surface. USGS standard one-meter DEMs are produced exclusively from high resolution light detection and ranging (lidar) source data of one-meter or higher resolution. One-meter DEM surfaces are seamless within collection projects, but, not necessarily seamless across projects. The spatial reference used for tiles of the one-meter DEM within the conterminous United States (CONUS) is Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) in units of meters, and in conformance with the North American Datum of 1983 ...

This study focuses on the use of citizen science and GIS tools for collecting and analyzing data on Rose Swanson Mountain in British Columbia, Canada. While several organizations collect data on wildlife habitats, trail mapping, and fire documentation on the mountain, there are few studies conducted on the area and citizen science is not being addressed. The study aims to aggregate various data sources and involve citizens in the data collection process using ArcGIS Dashboard and ArcGIS Survey 123. These GIS tools allow for the integration and analysis of different kinds of data, as well as the creation of interactive maps and surveys that can facilitate citizen engagement and data collection. The data used in the dashboard was sourced from BC Data Catalogue, Explore the Map, and iNaturalist. Results show effective citizen participation, with 1073 wildlife observations and 3043 plant observations. The dashboard provides a user-friendly interface for citizens to tailor their map extent and layers, access surveys, and obtain information on each attribute included in the pop-up by clicking. Analysis on classification of fuel types, ecological communities, endangered wildlife species presence and critical habitat, and scope of human activities can be conducted based on the distribution of data. The dashboard can provide direction for researchers to develop research or contribute to other projects in progress, as well as advocate for natural resource managers to use citizen science data. The study demonstrates the potential for GIS and citizen science to contribute to meaningful discoveries and advancements in areas.

The map dataset involved in the paper (Towards Secure and Efficient Crowdsourced Vector Map Updating on Cloud Platform)Description： (1) Folder database_dataset: Corresponds to the task publisher's original map database.(2) Folder vehicle_dataset: Crowdsourced vehicle collection trajectories, containing trajectories of 15 IDs.The specific coordinate information of the dataset is in Table 5 of the paper.Specifically, considering the confidentiality of vector map data, a geometric accuracy reduction method of has been applied to process the datasets, allowing for safer public release of the datasets while ensuring that the data remains usable.

Summary: How to configure Esri Collector for ArcGIS with a Bad Elf GPS Receiver for High-Accuracy Field Data Collection Storymap metadata page: URL forthcoming Possible K-12 Next Generation Science standards addressed:Grade level(s) 1: Standard 1-LS3-1 - Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits - Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parentsGrade level(s) 4: Standard 4-ESS2-2 - Earth’s Systems - Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s featuresGrade level(s) 5: Standard 5-ESS1-2 - Earth’s Place in the Universe - Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night skyGrade level(s) 6-8: Standard MS-LS4-5 - Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity - Gather and synthesize information about technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.Grade level(s) 6-8: Standard MS-LS4-6 - Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity - Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over timeGrade level(s) 6-8: Standard MS-ESS1-3 - Earth’s Place in the Universe - Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar systemGrade level(s) 6-8: Standard MS-ESS2-2 - Earth’s Systems - Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scalesGrade level(s) 9-12: Standard HS-LS4-4 - Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity - Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populationsGrade level(s) 9-12: Standard HS-ESS2-1 - Earth’s Systems - Develop a model to illustrate how Earth’s internal and surface processes operate at different spatial and temporal scales to form continental and ocean-floor features.Most frequently used words:featurebadelfselectgpsApproximate Flesch-Kincaid reading grade level: 9.9. The FK reading grade level should be considered carefully against the grade level(s) in the NGSS content standards above.

This data consists of data grids for the entire United States area, including 1 X 2 Degree, 1 X 1 Degree, 30 X 60 Minute, 15 X 15 Minute, 7.5 X 7.5 Minute, and 3.75 X 3.75 Minute. The grid was generated using ESRI ArcInfo GIS software.

The USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) service from The National Map is a comprehensive set of digital spatial data that encodes information about naturally occurring and constructed bodies of surface water (lakes, ponds, and reservoirs), paths through which water flows (canals, ditches, streams, and rivers), and related entities such as point features (springs, wells, stream gages, and dams). The information encoded about these features includes classification and other characteristics, delineation, geographic name, position and related measures, a "reach code" through which other information can be related to the NHD, and the direction of water flow. The network of reach codes delineating water and transported material flow allows users to trace movement in upstream and downstream directions. In addition to this geographic information, the dataset contains metadata that supports the exchange of future updates and improvements to the data. The NHD is available nationwide in two seamless datasets, one based on 1:24,000 (or larger) scale and referred to as high resolution NHD, and the other based on 1:100,000 scale and referred to as medium resolution NHD. The NHD from The National Map supports many applications, such as making maps, geocoding observations, flow modeling, data maintenance, and stewardship. The NHD is commonly combined with other data themes, such as boundaries, elevation, structures, and transportation, to produce general reference base maps. The National Map download client allows free downloads of public domain NHD data in either Esri File Geodatabase or Shapefile formats. For additional information on the NHD, go to https://www.usgs.gov/national-hydrography/national-hydrography-dataset. See https://apps.nationalmap.gov/help/ for assistance with The National Map viewer, download client, services, or metadata.

The USGS Governmental Unit Boundaries dataset from The National Map (TNM) represents major civil areas for the Nation, including States or Territories, counties (or equivalents), Federal and Native American areas, congressional districts, minor civil divisions, incorporated places (such as cities and towns), and unincorporated places. Boundaries data are useful for understanding the extent of jurisdictional or administrative areas for a wide range of applications, including mapping or managing resources, and responding to natural disasters. Boundaries data also include extents of forest, grassland, park, wilderness, wildlife, and other reserve areas useful for recreational activities, such as hiking and backpacking. Boundaries data are acquired from a variety of government sources. The data represents the source data with minimal editing or review by USGS. Please refer to the feature-level metadata ...