[MANILA] Asia Pacific countries are leveraging geospatial information, digital solutions and artificial intelligence to enhance their response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new report.
“Data is now a strategic asset,” Tiziana Bonapace, director of the ICT and disaster risk reduction division of UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), tells SciDev.Net. “With more use, more value is added.”
The report, which is the first in a series of UNESCAP publications to assess progress towards implementing the Asia-Pacific Plan of Action on Space Applications for Sustainable Development (2018–2030), highlights a number of initiatives throughout the region.
Thailand, for instance, used space applications to monitor the local COVID-19 situation and visualise the impact of development policies. The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency analysed reduced night-light images to monitor the impact of lockdown measures.
It also used satellite data to monitor nitrogen dioxide emissions and found that since the beginning of the year, most provinces in Thailand had fewer activities that caused emissions. All this data was integrated into a newly created dashboard that allows policymakers and others to monitor the pandemic, medical capacity, supplies, consumer goods and preventive and precautionary measures.
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[MANILA] Asia Pacific countries are leveraging geospatial information, digital solutions and artificial intelligence to enhance their response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new report.
“Data is now a strategic asset,” Tiziana Bonapace, director of the ICT and disaster risk reduction division of UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), tells SciDev.Net. “With more use, more value is added.”
The report, which is the first in a series of UNESCAP publications to assess progress towards implementing the Asia-Pacific Plan of Action on Space Applications for Sustainable Development (2018–2030), highlights a number of initiatives throughout the region.
Thailand, for instance, used space applications to monitor the local COVID-19 situation and visualise the impact of development policies. The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency analysed reduced night-light images to monitor the impact of lockdown measures.
It also used satellite data to monitor nitrogen dioxide emissions and found that since the beginning of the year, most provinces in Thailand had fewer activities that caused emissions. All this data was integrated into a newly created dashboard that allows policymakers and others to monitor the pandemic, medical capacity, supplies, consumer goods and preventive and precautionary measures.