ALICANTE, Spain — COVID-19 has brought the importance of good sanitation to the fore, as communities work to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. According to speakers at a recent event on the issue, geospatial data could play a key role in this — but serious consideration needs to be given to ethical challenges.
Globally, 2 billion people lack access to basic sanitation facilities such as toilets or latrines, which can contribute to the spread of disease. Geospatial data — which identifies the location of a place, person, or object via methods such as surveying, remote sensing, and geovisualization — has enormous potential for combating the sanitation crisis, said Lieven Slenders, geospatial manager at Gather Hub, a nonprofit focused on sanitation data.
Having increased access to data around this issue could allow decision-makers to better identify sanitation needs and take action to address them, he said at the online event hosted by the Benchmark Initiative.