Tanzania - need for geospatial data for climate resilience

Tanzania is suffering from a severe lack of up-to-date digital geospatial data depicting critical land and marine assets, such as buildings, roads, services, waterways, land uses, biodiversity etc. Cities are rapidly changing and mapping physical features of the land with traditional engineering approaches cannot keep up with the pace.

Boosting the data economy with wider and up-to-date access to digital geospatial (location) data is vital for Tanzanian development, informed decision-making, business and security. At the same time, Tanzania has a prominent young population, which is increasingly educated, but needs to be strongly linked with emerging digital data economy opportunities for their future employment.

The industrial placement solution

Tanzania Resilience Academy digital data collection and curation model is based on the industrial placement of large numbers of undergraduate university students to industry-led and demand-driven digital data collection and management campaigns.

Under the professional supervision of university experts and community mapping companies or NGOs (host organisations), students collect, curate and share digital data using affordable and accessible tools, such as mobile phones. Collected data is curated, analysed, and shared openly for further usage.