Sustainability isn’t just another buzzword aimed at attracting investors and positioning oneself as an industry thought leader. It’s a pressing concern that demands both our immediate and long-term attention. The rising risks of global food shortages, natural disasters, global warming, water scarcity, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions have taken a heavy toll on the global population, resulting in:
- Approximately 800 million people living in extreme poverty and enduring the pangs of hunger.
- An alarming 144 million individuals forced to abandon their homes due to natural disasters between 2008 and 2012.
- Water scarcity affecting 40% of the global population and projected to escalate significantly.
Location Intelligence for Sustainable Cities
These issues are poised to multiply unless addressed through a sustainable lens. In a recent survey conducted by Deloitte, involving over 2,000 C-suite executives, 79% expressed their belief that the world stands at a “tipping point” in its response to climate change. Just eight months prior, only 59% shared this viewpoint. The optimism that immediate action can mitigate the worst effects of climate change has surged from 63% to 88%. Among the key methods for advancing toward a sustainable future is the development and utilization of spatial solutions to help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Let’s explore how one such solution, known as location intelligence, can play a pivotal role in steering our focus towards sustainability by providing substantial data for designing smarter and more eco-friendly cities.
The Importance of Location Intelligence
Location intelligence (LI) extends beyond traditional geographical information systems (GIS) tools. Its capabilities reach far and wide, allowing for the visualization of spatial data and the analysis of information related to the planet’s physical, chemical, and biological systems, often detectable through remote-sensing technologies. The reliance on earth observation data (EO) collected through geospatial information is substantial, especially in the context of the SDGs, as it connects people to their specific locations and facilitates progress monitoring at regional, district, state, or local levels.
Location Intelligence for Business and SDGs
Location intelligence offers numerous benefits for businesses, including enhanced efficiency, scalability, improved decision-making, and competitive advantages. Earth observation provides crucial data for monitoring aspects like land use, soil health, snow cover, drought conditions, and crop development. It also offers insights into water cycles, air quality, forest health, and various aspects of the natural environment, along with epidemiological data for infectious diseases. These elements directly contribute to addressing most of the 18 SDGs outlined by the United Nations and depicted in an Integrated Geospatial Information Framework.
UN-GGIM: Advancing Geospatial Integration
The framework outlines 9 strategic pathways – a matrix of Society, Economy and Environment with Government, Technology and People for Knowledge sharing and collaboration; Decision making and Development. The United Nations Committee Of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) outlines mechanism to achieve integration of geospatial infrastructure aided with defined 14 global fundamental Geospatial Data Themes, a set of principles for aggregation or disaggregation of data while bringing in statistical and geospatial interoperability.
Here are some of the sought-after advantages of implementing location intelligence technology in your business:
- Enhanced customer relationships: Accurate data collected through location intelligence enables businesses to tailor products and services to their customer’s specific needs and behaviors, leading to increased sales and customer satisfaction.
- Improved supply chain operations: Location intelligence can identify new market opportunities and support better decision-making for site selection, thereby enhancing supply chain efficiency.
- Increased operational efficiency: Location-based obstacles such as supply delays and other bottlenecks that hinder business operations become more manageable with location intelligence.
- Real-time decision-making: Location intelligence empowers companies to make decisions in real time based on the latest and most accurate location data.
The Role of Geospatial in Location Intelligence
Over 90% of businesses consider location intelligence essential for their success. It harnesses the power of geospatial data and spatial analysis to provide understanding, insights, decision-making, and predictive capabilities. Applications span from identifying optimal retail locations to addressing traffic congestion and maintaining critical infrastructure. Location intelligence, driven by geographic information system (GIS) technology, machine learning automation, and real-time scalability, is playing a transformative role in several industries. Location intelligence is leveraged across various industries to optimize their business processes. Leveraging geospatial data within location intelligence enabled with Geospatial AI (GeoAI) aligns with 11 out of the 18 UN SDGs:
- Eliminating poverty: Earth Observation data, along with geocoded census data, offers a comprehensive view of areas in need of support and remediation.
- Eliminating hunger: Earth observation data to analyze crop variety, yield, growth, and forecasting for precision agriculture.
- Good health and well-being: Machine learning with geospatial data contributes to healthcare systems, epidemic forecasting, and disaster management.
- Clean water and sanitation: Map groundwater resources and analyze water quality, demand, and supply, contributing to water management efforts.
- Affordable and clean energy: Assesses sites for renewable energy installations, such as solar PV and wind farms, using earth observation data.
- Industry innovation and infrastructure: supports public transit access, green infrastructure planning, emissions monitoring, and ICT infrastructure evaluations.
- Sustainable cities and communities: Mapping and measuring urban growth and promoting efficient water usage.
- Climate action: Assists in mapping greenhouse gas emissions, forecasting hazards, and planning mitigation strategies.
- Life below water: Monitor ocean pollution, temperature, and marine ecosystems, aiming to protect marine resources.
- Life on land: Quantify forest cover, deforestation, and carbon sequestration with earth observation data.
- Space economy: Facilitate in space weather data analysis, models, and the mitigation of space weather effects.
Operationalizing Location Intelligence Effectively
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has brought about disruptive changes in nearly every industry, transforming production systems, management practices, and governance. It has connected billions of people worldwide with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to vast knowledge resources. The digital infrastructure, expected to define the next decade, has made a significant impact on geospatial and space technology, aligning with the five megatrends that will shape the future: Industry 4.0 and Smart Operations, Intelligent Transport and Metamobility, Digital Healthcare, Sustainability, and Space Systems.
Digital Infrastructure for Geospatial Integration
Digital infrastructure, incorporating AI/ML, cloud computing, and IIOT, integrated with geospatial and earth observation capabilities, is pivotal in developing national geospatial knowledge infrastructure and applying it across various sectors, including agriculture, water management, healthcare, energy, land and property, smart cities, and supply chain management. This integration plays a crucial role in addressing the SDGs.
Geospatial Tech: Transforming Industries
In addition, geospatial technology has disrupted numerous industries, offering location-based services and automated workflows to enhance decision-making, operational efficiency, and productivity. The seamless integration of GIS with enterprise systems, such as ERP, CRM, SCM, asset management, work management, and project portfolio management, along with sensory data, AI, and decision science, provides a unified visualization platform accessible to users anytime, anywhere. GeoAI, in conjunction with MLOps, is being deployed for automated execution of engineering workflows.
Technology and engineering companies have been instrumental in helping industries and governments harness the “power of location” in various ways, including:
- Creating urban digital models that form the backbone of smart cities.
- Providing high-definition maps for autonomous vehicles.
- Modernizing grids and network assets to optimize distribution management, enhance network reliability, and minimize service disruptions.
- Offering real-time dynamic scheduling and optimization for rail services during emergencies.
- Conducting vegetation analysis to detect encroachments on utility lines.
- Designing and rolling out 5G networks.
- Managing underground and overground pipeline integrity.
Location Intelligence goes far beyond just an industry term that defines a niche segment; it’s a valuable tool for addressing the pressing sustainability challenges of our time and working towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The successful implementation of geospatial technologies unlocks a wide opportunity for us as people to better align with a larger sustainable agenda. Together, this could be a first step for driving tangible change.
About the Author
Nihar Ranjan Sahoo, Senior Principal Architect, Geospatial Technology, Cyient
