Roadmap
Ology already combines many field mapping tools, but the long-term vision is bigger: a complete field platform for archaeology, biology, geology, lidar, sensitive data, crew workflows, and scientific reporting.
Near-term upgrades
Create “verify in field” targets from terrain visualizations, lidar review, or imported candidate layers. Mark each target as confirmed archaeological, possible, natural, modern disturbance, not visible, or needs revisit.
Add outcrop, lithology, formation, contact, fault, fracture, sample, and toolstone source templates with structured fields for rock type, age, weathering, source quality, and interpretation.
Add a structural geology workflow for strike, dip, dip direction, measurement method, magnetic declination, notes, photos, and GIS export.
Add templates for habitat patches, wetlands, rare plant observations, vegetation communities, wildlife sign, impact areas, restoration monitoring, and regulatory notes.
GIS and export
Export multi-layer project data with attributes, geometry, and metadata in a format that works well in QGIS and ArcGIS workflows.
Generate clean feature tables with lat/long, UTM, elevation, accuracy, photos, notes, attributes, recorder, and timestamps.
Add stronger support for projected coordinate systems, State Plane, NAD83 realizations, and project-specific CRS metadata.
Offline mapping
One of the most useful upgrades would be true MBTiles rendering, so users can bring in drone orthomosaics, lidar hillshades, RVT rasters, old maps, geology rasters, satellite imagery, and project maps created in GIS.
LiDAR and detection
Future lidar tools could identify candidate mounds, depressions, terraces, scarps, roads, berms, and landform anomalies, then send them into a field verification workflow rather than automatically calling anything a site.
Use local relief and topographic position to highlight raised features that deserve field review.
Flag possible pits, looting, borrow areas, sinkholes, or natural depressions for ground verification.
Detect possible roads, causeways, berms, walls, terrace edges, ditches, and access routes.
Long-term vision
Future versions could add team sync, reviewer workflows, role-based sensitive data access, project dashboards, App Store/TestFlight distribution, report-ready exports, public documentation, training videos, and discipline-specific field packs.