Geospatial Science and Technology

Briefing on work carried out by the CSTD

Dong WuUNCTAD

17 December 2013

UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPMENT

Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD)

• Functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

• Created in 1992 to provide advice to ECOSOC and the GA

• Since 2006, CSTD has been mandated to assist ECOSOC in the follow-up to WSIS

• The Secretariat is UNCTAD

Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD)

• Identify priority themes during the annual sessions• Make recommendations to ECOSOC • Once adopted, these recommendations become

ECOSOC resolutions.• These recommendations are for consideration by

national governments, and UN entities, including those at the regional level.

Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD)

15th session, May 2012 Open access, virtual science libraries, geospatial

analysis and other complementary ICT and STEM assets to address development issues, with particular attention to education

Geospatial Science and Technologywork of the CSTD

• Geospatial Science and Technology for Development: UNCTAD Current Studies Series

• Report of the Secretary-General on Open access, virtual science libraries, geospatial analysis and other complementary ICT and STEM assets to address development issues, with particular attention to education

Geospatial Science and Technology

• Tools and methodologies that are used to collect, manage and analyze geospatial data.

• Significant transformation in recent years due to new technologies such as GIS, remote sensing and GPS

Societal benefit areas and related decision support systems

Geospatial Science and Technology for Development

Applications that can address development challenges– Urban development– Land administration– Disaster management

Summary of GS&T-enabled benefits in sustainable urban–regional development

Example of use of GIS in urban-regional planning:

Source: Baud, Kuffer, Pfeffer, Sliuzas (2010)

Visual Interpretations of different housing typologies in selected wards of Delhi to refine poverty targeting

Example: Rates of unemployment in Rosario Argentina 2001 Census

Source: Martínez, J. (2009)

GS&T-enabled benefits in land administration

Example of use of GIS in land management

Source: Lemmen and Zevenbergen (2010)

Trialling HRSI for boundary identification in Ethiopia- World Bank Study

Geospatial land parcel mapping is not common yet in Ethiopia. Land titling is limited to textual certificates.

A WB project used Quickbird satellite imagery to establish a parcel index for a region.

Main contributions of GIS to disaster management

How can developing countries better utilize these geospatial science and technology

Multi-level approach• Global strategy and vision• National strategy• Infrastructure and data• Participatory GIS and crowdsourcing• Cost• Capacity-building

Report of the Secretary-General

GIS and EducationLearning about GIS and learning through GIS

Learning about GIS and learning through IGS

• Learning about GIS:– Necessity for educational programmes that train people to

become GIS practitioners (GIS-literate force);

• Learning through GIS:– As an education tool to develop spatial abilities (mainly

spatial orientation and spatial visualization);– GIS and geospatial analysis can also help in developing

data analysis and manipulation skills;

Recommendations made by the CSTD to the ECOSOC in relation to GIS

• Strengthen secondary and post-secondary curricula to better integrate geographic information systems and fundamental concepts of geography that enrich spatial thinking into national education programmes and support teachers through training to better integrate such systems, geography and spatial thinking into their professional development;

• Establish bodies dedicated to obtaining, storing and disseminating geographic data, including remote sensing data, to make geographic information system data available for public use at the lowest cost;

• Involve the private sector in the process of increasing technology openness for geospatial data, with, for example, public sector organizations such as government agencies and libraries collaborating with private sector firms to index geospatial information and make it easily searchable and available online;

ECOSOC included these recommendations in its Resolution 2012/6 of 30 August 2012

Thank you.

dong.wu@unctad.org