Unlocking the Potential of Geospatial Analytics for Global Development
CEGA and New Light Technologies (NLT) are teaming up to harness today’s open-source geospatial sea change for poverty alleviation and global development. This post was written by CEGA and NLT staff, and is cross-posted on the NLT website.
CEGA’s annual Geospatial Analysis for Development (Geo4Dev) conference, supported in part by Washington, D.C.-based New Light Technologies (NLT), highlights novel geospatial data and analytic techniques to address issues of poverty, sustainable development, urbanization, climate change, and economic growth around the world, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Geo4Dev will now become the Geospatial Analysis for Development (Geo4Dev) Initiative, a hub for rigorous academic research and training that exploits geospatial data for the targeting, design, and evaluation of social and economic development programs. The initiative will further drive the development of new analytical tools and methods for conducting geospatial analysis across diverse sectors related to poverty and development including agriculture and food security, urbanization, climate change, humanitarian crisis, and disaster response. The initiative brings together leading researchers, as well as government ministries, NGOs, and private enterprises to inspire novel research collaborations, share knowledge, and build capacity to utilize geospatial data, tools, and approaches.
Both CEGA and NLT are pioneering geospatial and remote sensing technologies as measurement tools for researchers. In one example, CEGA Faculty co-Director Josh Blumenstock (UC Berkeley) trained a machine-learning algorithm to use satellite remote sensing data and mobile phone logs to measure poverty at an extremely disaggregated level. In another example, CEGA researcher Jennifer Burney (UC San Diego) used remote sensing of satellite data in combination with health data to measure the impact of air pollution on infant mortality across sub-Saharan Africa. NLT has worked with the World Bank to use remote sensing of satellite imagery to measure land cover and land use, informal structures, deforestation, and firm productivity.
“We’ve found that, particularly in environments where no reliable survey data exist, geospatial and remote sensing data can help fill the gap. Combined with open source platforms, it makes it possible to measure development outcomes globally, at low or no cost to users.” — Josh Blumenstock, CEGA Faculty Co-Director and Assistant Professor of Information at UC Berkeley
Ultimately, CEGA and NLT aspire to make geospatial data and tools a standard for development research. They aim to continue expanding and opening opportunities for the global community of academic institutions, corporations, international organizations, and others to partner in this endeavor. This includes organizational involvement, sponsorships, and data sharing initiatives. Together with an expanding number of partners, they seek to further grow the use of open-source platforms and data for measurement in global development. The initiative will showcase the use of open data through upcoming conferences and the curation of online open-source resources for use in geospatial analysis. NLT and CEGA invite the community to partner and to work towards our mission to increase access to geospatial data, tools, and resources for underrepresented populations, especially women and scholars from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
It’s no longer a matter of waiting for advances in big data and analytical tools that GIS and remote sensing promise to provide. The technology and data are already here, evolving in real-time, and they are already capable of transforming measurement on a global scale. Geospatial technology is becoming more widely accessible and is often free to use. Still, a coordinated effort is needed to expand knowledge of GIS and remote sensing tools and data and to integrate geospatial curriculum and methodologies into professional development pipelines for practitioners and researchers. CEGA, NLT and other experts and organizations working in the field can tackle this challenge and help research professionals measure economic, social and environmental change more effectively.
About CEGA and NLT
The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) is the West Coast hub for research on global development. Headquartered at UC Berkeley, CEGA’s large, interdisciplinary research network — including a growing number of scholars from low- and middle-income countries — identifies and tests innovations designed to reduce poverty and promote development. Our researchers use rigorous methods as well as novel measurement tools — including wireless sensors, mobile data, and analytics — to evaluate complex programs. Through careful matchmaking, competitive grantmaking, and research dissemination activities, CEGA ensures that the research we produce is relevant, timely, and actionable to policymakers.
New Light Technologies (NLT) NLT provides a broad range of integrated Information Technology (IT) consulting services and products to government, commercial, NGO, and non-profit sectors. The firm offers comprehensive Geospatial Consulting Services, DevSecOps and Systems Integration, Development, and Management for IT Infrastructure Modernization including Virtualization and Microservices, Cloud & Mobile Computing, Application Development, Big Data Modeling, Analytics, & Visualization.
