Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie
THERE is need to have ‘location intelligence’ for a smart city like Lagos, the President, Geoinformation Society of Nigeria, Dr. Matthew Olumide Adekoju, has said.
He said a city, such as Lagos, could not be administered by a rule of the thumb but technology, with experts managing it.
He spoke in Lagos during the society’s yearly Technical Discourse with the theme “Geospatial Lagos “.
He said great cities, such as New York, London and Dubai, use Geo spatial technology for their development. He geospatial technology includes space technology, information communication technology and computer generated data.
He attributed the success of the state’s Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) and growth as the biggest economy in Africa to the introduction of Geographic Information System (GIS) by the administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Read ALSO: Dangote builds N2b housing estate for IDPs
The GIS gave rise to a project known as the Property Indenti-fication Exercise (PIE), where every property is identified for tax and development.
He stressed that for the nation to develop, states should place premium on scientifically-generated data.
He said the device enables a government to know a problem and ways of dealing with it in future, if the need arises.
Chairman of the Society, Oluropo Olajugba sought the adoption of policies for promoting greater awareness and public access to scientifically-generated data. He observed that no nation or state could be competitive or develop except it embraces geospatial information.
He commended Lagos for embracing the technology, stressing that there is no alternative to development. He noted that with over 20 million people and limited land, it had become evident that for it to be a smart city, it must rely on geospatial technology.
Oluropo said if the technology is adapted, the issue of people building on water plain or places designated for others uses would not arise. He regretted that a major challenge in state is that of data, which translates every facet of its economy, including traffic.
‘’How many people ply the road and waterways daily? How many vehicles and boats? Where is the origin and destination of travel?’’ he asked
He said: “Geospatial data is produced by nearly every device or equipment, starting from smart watches and fitness trackers to smart phones or our cars. Globally, it is becoming increasing difficult to separate location intelligence technologies and solutions from the entire concept of “ Smart Cities”, and its attendant growth”.
Leave a Reply