Within the mining sector the use of GPS technology continues to evolve. This was soon followed by the introduction of similar technology onto large surface mining and road construction equipment. The technology additionally gained early acceptance in the agricultural sector through its application to automated farming equipment. Outside of the military realm, GPS technology found early use as a navigation aid for civilian aircraft and later was developed an alternative to traditional survey methods. government has invested more than $35 billion in the GPS satellite constellation and continues to invest in GPS at a rate of about $1 billion a year (Pham, 2011). Since its initial development for strictly military purposes, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has been, (particularly since the early 2000’s) quickly deployed to a broad range of civilian uses – to the extent that it now ubiquitous and pervades almost every aspect of daily life (Rice, 2014) The U.S. The ability to integrate satellite and land based navigation positioning systems with three (3) dimensional computer models, real time communication networks and laser and inertial guidance technologies has underpinned a paradigm shift across multiple industries that has been described as the biggest change since the Industrial Revolution. 535 BC-475BCĪs with recent advances in the fields of biotechnology, materials sciences and computing, the advent of new technologies in the field of geospatial engineering have the ability to radically reshape nearly every facet of human endeavour, creating opportunities for new jobs, new industries and new economies. “The only thing that is constant is change” Heraclitus of Ephesus c.