Drones are improving the quality and effectiveness of the work of aid and development actors while enabling local communities to produce and control geographical data and information.
Despite the understandable resistance of those who are always opposed to any innovation, drones are improving the capacity of local communities and aid development actors in the production of data that serve to improve the quality of life of populations and the protection of the environment. Globally, thousands of experts and activists work together in networks, proposing ideas and regulations and directly contributing to humanitarian operations, saving a huge number of lives. That’ s the case of the Humanitarian UAV Network and WeRobotics with its Flying Labs® around the world with the goal to accelerate the positive impact of robotics in humanitarian operations.
UAV applications are revolutionizing entire segments of international aid and their impact is now measurable in all technical sectors and all departments as monitoring & evaluation and auditing, improving diagnostics, land-surveys, baselines or monitoring any type of measurable change.
Artificial Intelligence has enabled drones to automatically collect and analyze a huge amount of data and images for better decision making both in the humanitarian and development framework.
Every information collected on the ground can be organized and displayed in high quality on the maps produced by the drone. The result is incredible and the potential seems enormous. Each phase of a project can be improved by the use of drones and their ability to produce, organize and visualize data.
UAV technologies allow to evaluate the project performance standard expected to be reached in terms of quantity, quality, timeframe and location.
Just to give a few examples, it is finally possible to accurately monitor each tree in reforestation project, all changes in land use, the progress of an agricultural development plan, quantify the state of degradation or improvement of biodiversity, update the cadastre of an entire city or detect street vendors in informal economy projects. Each element present on the territory can be identified and analyzed.
Aid programs that are aimed at enhancing or protecting a specific territory o community can no longer do without the data produced through aerial images. More than ever before, human expertise can be effectively made available for environmental protection.
The applications are endless and a rapid, intense and disruptive technological innovation is expected.
The drones have democratized the science of cartography and today, with a relatively low budget, every small local community can easily produce any data related to its own territory.
Data control determines the control of the territory and its destiny.
More and more civil society organizations, NGOs, UN agencies and national civil protection structures are being technically strengthened and coordinated with each other in order to ensure the rapid availability of quality air data in the event of a natural disaster. In this context, the TerraData platform was created and developed with the aim of contributing to global efforts in the fields of international aid, such as climate change, urban resilience or food systems.
www.terradata.solutions is an initiative of ARKO Consulting
TerraData is a platform of persons passionated and engaged in the study and monitoring of the territory with the aim of producing the knowledge necessary to mitigate the effects of climate change, to preserve biodiversity, to develop local resilience to natural disasters and to take the best decisions on emergency time.
