Why space holistic mapping is imperative in Lagos

By Lucas Ajanaku

The Lagos State government has said it will begin a fresh round of mapping of the entire state through its Geographic Information System (GIS) project in the first quarter of this year to capture new developments across the state.

Special Adviser to Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Innovation and Technology, Mr. Tubosun Alake, who spoke in Lagos, said the new mapping would help the state get a more detailed topography and physical state of Lagos for better administration.

According to him, the state had already trained drone pilots and drone maintenance crew that would be on ground to service and maintain the drones. In preparation for the mapping, Lagos State has commenced digititalisation of land records in the state because everything needs to be digitilased to enhance speed in the mapping process, Alake said.

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The plan to use drones for mapping, is coming at a time when the federal government, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is planning to license and monitor the use of drones in the country. Drones are technology driven objects that could fly in the air, while being remotely controlled from a ground location and they are currently used in the health and e-commerce sectors for the delivery of goods and sensitive healthcare materials like blood. They are also used by security agents for emergency evacuation, and they are developed from emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR).

Reacting to the planned licensing and control of the use of drones by the NCC, Alake said: “Although I have not seen the document for the planned licensing and control of the use of drones by the NCC, but I think licensing and control of the use of drones, is a welcome development.

“This is true because there are different used cases of drones, which varies from countries to countries, and that is where the need to license and monitor the use of drones by government is important to avoid cases where people will abuse the use of drones.

“But in as much as I support the idea to license and control the use of drones by government, I also think that the licensing and control should be industry friendly so that businesses can run properly in a more efficient manner.”

Giving reasons for the recent design and display of a mock drone by the state government, Alake said: “Drones are tools that will be used by the Lagos State Government for its Geographic Information System (GIS) project for the mapping of the entire landscape of Lagos. This is necessary because land administration is critical to the Lagos State government, since the mapping makes land administration much easier and efficient.’’