By Ladislav Charouz and Kareff Rafisura*
BANGKOK | 2 November 2024 (IDN) — Despite offering a range of opportunities, urbanisation poses a set of unique challenges to sustainable development. The rapid expansion of cities often results in the growth of informal settlements, with East and South-East Asia being home to 370 million people living in urban slums.
Expensive to retrofit, these areas abound in health hazards like structurally unsound buildings, insufficient access to clean water, and inadequate waste management. Another pervasive urban problem is air pollution; in 2019, long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 pollution (particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter) was estimated to have caused up to 3.6 million early deaths in Asia.
Geospatial technology offers a wide and growing range of solutions to many of these problems. Several countries in North-East and East Asia are global leaders in this field, and their technological innovations are showcased in the 2024 edition of ESCAP’s biennial Compendium on Geospatial Applications for Sustainable Development.
The Compendium features technologies such as “digital twins,” which are virtual models of real world objects and areas. These models are often used to analyse physical assets and generate insights on their maintenance and performance optimisation. PLATEAU, for example, is a digital twin initiative in Japan that enables users to visualize differences between 3D urban models and spatial data, helping them make informed decisions on land use, infrastructure projects, and urban redevelopment.
Similarly, the Russian Federation is using digital twin technology to model economic activities and project optimal growth strategies based on land use.
Geospatial technology also helps monitor the safety of urban spaces. The Republic of Korea recently unveiled a new National Safety Information Integrated Disclosure System supported by satellite data, allowing users to check the safety ratings of both public and private facilities like schools, elevators, nuclear power plants, and passenger vessels.
Geospatial technology
By easing public access to the results of safety inspections, the system encourages the maintenance of higher standards across the board. In China, a similar goal is being pursued by the Shenzhen Technology Institute of Urban Public Safety, which has developed a new method to monitor the safety of aging buildings. The technique relies on comparing radar observations of deformations over time to help assess their structural stability.
Geospatial technology can even improve the monitoring of air quality by tracking the transboundary movements of pollutants. Developed in Japan, the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Himawari Monitor tracks the flow of aerosols and PM 2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter), while the Republic of Korea has developed a Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) to monitor particulate matter of various sizes, as well as nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide.
In many countries, such as Mongolia, air quality can also be accessed by the public on an open data platform. This information helps users decide when to undertake outdoor activities, minimizing their risk of exposure to pollutants.
As countries endeavour to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, geospatial technologies can greatly support efforts to make cities cleaner, safer, and more sustainable. The experiences of countries in North-East and East Asia should not just inspire others, but can be also leveraged through regional cooperation, enabling all countries to benefit from technological progress. Through capacity-building and data-sharing, habitable cities can become a standard across the region.
*Ladislav Charouz, Intern, ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division; Kareff Rafisura, Economic Affairs Officer, ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division
Related SDGs: 3 Good Health and Well-Being; 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: The illuminated view of Seoul’s cityscape in the evening. Geospatial technology plays a key role in improving cities. Credit: Pexels / Ethan Brooke. Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/evening-panorama-of-illuminated-seoul-cityscape-12640885/
