Interview with Edward Anderson, the World Bank: You cannot manage what you don't measure
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How are you currently using geoinformatics in your work?
Primarily in the process of risk assessment. We are collecting, analysing and curating datasets to characterize socioeconomic exposure of buildings, people, assets and services to natural hazards as well as the geophysical nature of those hazards (meaning the hydrology, terrain, land use and land cover). So spatial data is critical to our work. To do this, we’re using a variety of techniques – from household data collection and bathymetric and land surveys to drone topographic surveys and satellite imaging.
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In 2015 the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were set by the United Nations General Assembly. How would you define the role of geospatial information in accomplishing these goals?
That’s a very broad question, but if we just pick SDG 11 as an example – which is that sustainable cities need to be inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable – spatial growth patterns, spatial change, inequality, vulnerability and risk are clearly all critical to this goal. And you cannot manage what you don’t measure. So if the growth in cities is largely (between 70 and 80%) unplanned and the accumulation densification of these cities is happening on hazardous land, in vulnerable conditions and in informal conditions, then we need to rapidly update this picture and find a way to sustain those updates. So I think the role of geospatial information is essential in helping us shift our management from a reactive approach to a more proactive, forward-looking one.
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