Background

The United Nations has listed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to make the world more sustainable. These include poverty, inequality, and the impacts of climate change. Sustainability crucially needs an equilibrium in the use of resources. Geospatial technologies, such as Remote Sensing (RS) which includes satellite imagery or drones; Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for organizing and analyzing location data, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) for mapping precise locations, are powerful tools to monitor the Earth and make smart decisions on how we use resources.

These technologies are unbiased, location-specific and allow researchers and policymakers to monitor what is happening on ground as well as assess problems.

They help us monitor natural resources and track the overexploitation of land and water, they map the changes that are taking place on land surface such as the depletion of forest cover. They can offer long-term tracking of these changes when utilised correctly. Water quality can also be tracked by these technologies as they help measure temperature of oceans and plastic debris in water resources. 

Tracking food security and poverty can be done by mapping night lights as well as assessing agricultural land. Remote sensing can help farmers and planners to predict crop yield and identify suitable land based on climatic conditions. Such technologies are excellent to predict drought by mapping soil moisture content over time. 

Geospatial technologies have remarkable capabilities and if utilized correctly, have a potential to impact real change and further  the sustainable development of our world. It is thus the need of the hour to introduce a deeper understanding of these technologies to our youth to peak their interest in knowing about and ultimately working with these technologies. We have just covered the surface of the transformative capabilities of these technologies and much research remains on how we can utilize them towards progress. Through introducing their study in school curricula, we are more likely to build a generation that can transform the world and inhibit the climate crisis we are currently facing.