World Bank: Volume of geospatial data has grown rapidly

In recent decades, there has been a rapid increase in the volume of geospatial data, Mark Roberts, Lead Economist on Urban Development Issues at the World Bank, said at an event titled "Geospatial Intelligence for Sustainable Urban Growth: Unlocking the Economic Potential of Housing Construction" organized within the framework of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) held in Baku, Report informs

According to him, there has been a significant increase in the quantity, quality (taking into account resolution), and coverage of available data: "Numerous global datasets are available. At the World Bank, we use data both obtained from other providers and independently created by us. These include data from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre's Global Human Settlement Layer, as well as open-source data such as OpenStreetMaps."

The guest noted that, as the World Bank, they are researching how rapidly urban expansion is occurring and why it is happening in certain countries and regions: "This is important for policymakers for several reasons. First, it helps determine whether cities are growing efficiently in terms of productivity and in a manner consistent with environmental considerations. This implies differentiation between compact economic growth models and more sprawling models that are associated with greater environmental degradation, a larger carbon footprint, and are not as favorable in terms of productivity and livability in cities. This is also very important from the perspective of urban governance."