Geospatial Technology: A conversation with Taiwo Ogunwumi by Oladosu Adenike

A Conversation with Taiwo Ogunwumi on "using geospatial technology to build climate resilience" by Oladosu Adenike

For decades now, Geospatial technology has proven to be a viable tool that is being used to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (2030). As many advanced countries have been using this technology but how many sectors have adopted it into their activities? Are we utilizing it as we should? How many policies have been made in this regard? How do we use Geospatial technology and its capabilities in addressing climate-related crises? We don’t have to wait until we have the entire tool needed to build climate resilience before we start to act on the climate change crisis. We need to start deploying technology that will help boost our environmental immunity and not destroy our environment. One such technology we have today is Geospatial technology. Over the years, it has helped us to manage disasters, evaluate progress, prevent disasters and build resilience. We have been seeing extreme weather events happening around the world as such are overwhelming critical infrastructures. During my interaction with Taiwo Ogunwumi, a geospatial consultant, he stated that; why there is more impact of climate change is because we are not utilizing the tool as it should.   

Climate change is now a global reality and to reduce the vulnerability of the impact of climate change using geospatial technology as Taiwo stated that there are four components of Disaster Risk Management that act as an action against any crisis which includes; Preparedness, Prevention, Response and Recovery. This will have to do with predictive mapping of climate-induced hazards that might occur at a given geographical location, making policies that can enhance natural hazard prevention and further build climate resilience. Also, using remote sensing technology (which is a subset of Geospatial technology) could help to understand flood impacts on livelihood, ecosystem, and population and help emergency experts and policymakers to facilitate necessary responses at flood-affected locations.  Disaster occurs when there is a hazard, when people are vulnerable, exposure and lack of adaptive capacity. For instance, Flood and Drought early warning information will help farmers to be more prepared and help in improving their coping and adaptive capacity to the future climate-induced crises.   As well, geospatial could help fix policies that will aid system change and not climate change. According to him, any kind of hazard can easily be monitored through GIS, be it changes in temperature, amount of rainfall, desert encroachment and other forms of hazard.” 

Climate change arises from different sectors and as such needs us to act from different angles in solving the climate crisis. Remote sensing technology is one of the effective tools to monitor forest canopy, biodiversity and tree covers which could help to avoid future pandemics, through the geospatial analysis of the environment it will be easy to know whether we are expanding our biodiversity resources or we are depleting them because they serve as a regulator of air quality. It is important that we adopt the use of geospatial technology at all sectors and institutions that exist within the country to strengthen our environmental immunity which will build humanity security from any form of present and future crisis.

Also through geospatial technology, we can have access to data that is needed in predicting climate change and this will help the government and other relevant environmental stakeholders in formulating policy to address and respond to climate-induced crises.

“Geographic Information System (GIS) is a tool to monitor changes in sea level, ecosystem resources, and predict drought and flood. Hence, this technology will help to build climate resilience."

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