Sustainable Development Goals Connectivity Dilemma

Land and Geospatial Information for Urban and Rural Resilience

Abbas Rajabifard, Abbas Rajabifard

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000691023
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Environmental Law
• Index: Law

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429290626, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Large-scale migration from rural to urban areas, and between countries, affects sustainable development at local, national, and regional levels. To strengthen urban and rural resilience to global challenges, Sustainable Development Goals Connectivity Dilemma: Land and Geospatial Information for Urban and Rural Resilience, brings together leading international geospatial experts to analyze the role of land and geospatial data infrastructures and services for achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda have been longstanding aspirations worldwide, the complexity and connectivity between social, economic, environmental, and governance challenges are changing with large-scale urbanization and population growth. Structured in 5 parts, the themes and objectives of the book are in line with the critical challenges, gaps, and opportunities raised at all UN-GGIM events and UN-GGIM Academic Network forums. Through the different perspectives of scholars, industry actors, and policy-makers, this book provides interdisciplinary analysis and multisectoral expertise on the interconnection between the SDGs, geospatial information, and urban and rural resilience.

Sustainable Development Goals Connectivity Dilemma: Land and Geospatial Information for Urban and Rural Resilience is an essential reference for researchers, industry professionals, and postgraduate students in fields such as geomatics, land administration, urban planning, GIS, and sustainable development. It will also prove a vital resource for environmental protection specialists, government practitioners, UN-GGIM delegates, and geospatial and land administration agencies.

Features:

• Introduces a holistic and new approach to sustainable development

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• Brings together social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability

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• Highlights the significance and the role of geospatial information in sustainable development

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• Examines urban and rural interdependencies in the context of strengthening resilience

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• Written by experts with diverse academic and professional backgrounds who examine connectivity and develop strategic pathways

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Part I

Setting the Scene

1

Sustainable Development Goals Connectivity Dilemma

Abbas Rajabifard

Centre for SDIs and Land Administration, The University of Melbourne, Australia

1.1 Introduction

In the context of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) and the development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recalling Economic and Social Council resolution 2011/24, of 27 July 2011, which established the UN-GGIM to provide a forum for coordination and dialogue among Member States, and to hold regular high-level, multi-stakeholder discussions on global geospatial information, including through the convening of global forums, with a view to promoting a comprehensive dialogue with all relevant actors. Further also recalling the establishment of the UN-GGIM Academic Network in July 2016 as a strategic research and training arm for UN-GGIM to assist members, and recalling Economic and Social Council resolution 2016/27 entitled ‘Strengthening institutional arrangements on geospatial information management’ of 27 July 2016, in which the Council acknowledged the considerable achievements of the Committee of Experts including: its contribution to the strengthening of geospatial information management capacities and utilization in developing countries; the efforts to streamline the work of the subsidiary bodies of the Council in the field of geospatial information management; and its role in the implementation of the 2030 Global Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework, and other global development agendas within the purview of the United Nations.

Also recalling General Assembly resolution 70/1 entitled ‘Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ of 25 September 2015, which recognizes the need for new data acquisition and integration approaches to improve the availability, quality, timeliness and disaggregation of data, and the use of a wide range of data, including earth observations and geospatial information, to support the implementation of the new development agenda at all levels, while ensuring national ownership in supporting and tracking progress; noting the opening statement of the Secretary-General at this Congress, in which he emphasized that our expertise and guidance in geospatial data, methods, frameworks, tools, and platforms is urgently needed, and that reliable, timely, accessible and disaggregated geospatial information must be brought to bear to measure progress, inform decision-making and ensure effective and inclusive national and sub-national programs that will chart the path towards the ‘Geospatial Way to a Better World’, to assist in the implementation of the SDGs, and transform our world for the better; and also noting further that United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) in November 2018, which has provided a convening, participatory and inclusive environment to enhance the communication, understanding, knowledge and application of geospatial and land information management, to discuss the policy relevance and challenges to advance geospatial science and technology, promote the creation and sharing of more reliable geospatial data, and to enhance value-added applications and services to address local, regional and global challenges; all have highlighted the needs for a roadmap facilitating the achievement of SDGs implementation through the lens of Geospatial information.

With this in mind, this book will provide interdisciplinary analysis and multi-sectoral expertise on the interconnection between the SDGs, geospatial information, the legal, policies and institutional components, technical enabling tools and the way forward to address urban and rural resilience.

Urbanization, natural and human-induced disasters, migration, and technological advancements are among some of the most potent forces that are increasing the connectivity and complexity of the challenges highlighted in the SDGs. Achieving the SDGs across different communities and domains will require the use of geospatial information to overcome challenges such as land rights, food production, disaster risk reduction, safe human settlements, and other social, economic, and environmental issues at local, national, and global levels. Geospatial information and technologies are particularly critical to strengthening urban and rural resilience, where economic, agricultural, and various social sectors intersect.

The SDGs dependency on geospatial information and enabling technologies are mainly due to the primary roles that data and tools for relating people to their location, place and environment, and to measure ‘where’ progress is, or is not, being made, particularly at sub-national and local levels. However, in the pursuit for sustainable development, many countries continue to face a series of impediments that exacerbate their ability and opportunity to participate fully in the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, to support national development, economic prosperity, and through that, a global and thriving information economy. These include institutional challenges in data production: having the required human capital and skillsets, effective and sustained access to digital technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), to the provision and exploitation of new data needs, information systems, analytics and associated enabling tools and technologies to support the timely and reliable implementation of the SDGs. Examining the SDGs from a geospatial lens will ensure that the challenges are addressed for all populations in different locations, leaving no one behind.

In addition, identifying the gaps and opportunities in understanding the connectivity between different elements of sustainability and resilience requires input from different disciplines and sectors.

1.2 Addressing SDGs and Land Tenure: The Need for a Roadmap

The achievement of the SDGs for all communities and jurisdictions require a comprehensive roadmap that encompasses all dimensions of data infrastructure, social, economic, environmental and governance ecosystems.

With this in mind, this book provides interdisciplinary analysis and multi-sectoral expertise on the interconnection between the SDGs, geospatial information, the legal, policies and institutional components, technical enabling tools and the way forward to address urban and rural resilience. In addition, we discuss the security of tenure targets embedded in the SDGs. We stressed the importance of the land administration and surveying profession owning the SDGs selected targets such as Target 1.4 on ensuring that all men and women have equal rights to land and other forms of property by 2030. Very few countries actually know what their baseline on the security of tenure is and even fewer have a program or plan in place for achieving the target by 2030.

Similarly and in a broader context, Goals 1, 2, and 5 of the SDGs have designated targets linked to land tenure rights signify the obligation of incorporating land administration in the process of building sustainable and smart cities for all. Therefore, surveyors and geospatial practitioners should work to change this globally and help countries to adopt national programs on security of tenure while addressing SDGs Goals, Targets and Indicators.

The UN-GGIM 2017-2021 Strategic Framework recognizes the necessity of integrating geospatial information in process of achieving the SDGs and developing future cities. Strengthening local, national, and global cooperation to foster the integration of legal and organizational frameworks including the SDGs, UN-GGIM 2017-2021 Strategic Framework, Sendai Framework, and Habitat III Urban Agenda will positively impact disaster management, development of adequate policies and regulations, climate action, efficient urban planning, and good institutional governance.

The availability of effective and efficient land administration—and its economic, social, and environmental implications—remains a problem worldwide, especially in developing countries where mature land administration systems and formal land registration systems are not available. Therefore, spatial inclusion, secure land rights, and sustainable land use are all major challenges of rapid urbanization that public and private sectors need to address in the development of future smart cities.

Considerin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Forewords
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Biographies of Authors
• Part I: Setting the Scene
• Part II: Enhancing SDGs Connectivity and Disaster Resilience
• Part III: Supporting SDGs: Legal, Policies and Institutional Components and Capacity Building
• Part IV: Enabling Tools and Technical Components
• Part V: SDGs Perspectives: Current Practices and Case Studies
• Index