Using Geospatial Data Ethically to Make Informed, Fair Policy

The Lincoln Institute provides a variety of early- and mid-career fellowship opportunities for researchers. In this series, we follow up with our fellows to learn more about their work.

With a PhD in land surveying, Rosario Casanova serves as president of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) Academic Network for the Americas, in addition to teaching geomatics at Universidad de la República in Montevideo, Uruguay. 

Casanova received a graduate student fellowship from the Lincoln Institute’s program on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in 2005, while pursuing her master’s degree in urban planning. She has remained a Lincoln Institute collaborator, helping to coordinate an online forum for other Lincoln Institute thesis scholars, teaching GIS courses, and authoring chapters on Uruguay’s property tax system in both editions of Sistemas del impuesto predial.

In this conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Casanova discusses how geospatial data can help root policy decisions in reality, why a strong set of ethical standards is needed to govern the practice, and why she likes to watch K-dramas.

JON GOREY: What is the focus of your work, including your role with UN Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM)?

ROSARIO CASANOVA: I have been a professor for 32 years, working for the public university Universidad de la República. And I realized that there’s something else to be done. I wanted to create networks and to not spend financial resources to create the wheel again and again in every different place, to learn lessons from others and not to start from zero each time.

I became the first woman director of the Land Surveying Institute in Uruguay. One of my friends was one of the founders of UN-GGIM, and they were starting an academic network of the Americas; my university became one of the members, and I’m the representative. Again, it’s connecting worlds, and I’m trying to connect with another of my roles, which is cochairing [the commission on professional education] at FIG, the International Federation of Surveyors. It’s not all surveyors—there are also land professionals. After the first of January, I will be the chair.

I’m also now an advisor at the Ministry of Housing and Land Planning in Uruguay, supporting local decision-makers with information including SDG [sustainable development goals] indicators. Because I think one of the main challenges for different local governments is to monitor what is going on. With the SDG indicators, you have the methodology that all the countries in the UN agree to, so you can use them to identify at least what is going on locally with, for example, access to public transport, or the quality of water or air. You want to measure, to monitor what is going on. I give them the tool to understand what’s going on. So it’s just trying to support them, to get them the tools, to make them think maybe they can make some changes to improve or to achieve their own goals.

JG: What kind of projects are you working on now, or hoping to work on next?

RC: I had a publication about the ethical use of spatial information. Under FIG, we are launching an ethical model for the profession, and an educational program to include in curricula, to train university students in the ethical use of geospatial information. Because I’m quite worried about that. In our survey, 81 percent of government institutions have no standards for the ethical use of geospatial data. And at universities, many said they were given no class, no lesson, nothing about ethics. So from our point of view, as a university, we should be saying something.

So we prepared a publication with people around the world, and we have 10 or 11 principles. And we have different topics, because it’s also about how to work. For example, as surveyors, we go out to a rural area or wherever, and sometimes they do not involve women in that task. That is segregation, we need to say it aloud, say it from the point of view of this global and important institution that is the International Federation of Surveyors.

And one principle is to protect vulnerable communities. For example, there are cases where the location of resources could put an Indigenous slum in danger, so we need to be sure to have that information properly presented, to cause no harm.

With AI, you can use it, but you are responsible for that information. And another topic is how you present your product. For example, if I create a map with the roads and everything in green, if you see it from here and it’s all green, you will say, ‘Oh, it’s great, they have good streets.’ But if I say, in a little legend, that green indicates a bad status, not all the people will go read the legend; you may see something different, because you might not see that. We’re used to using red, yellow—the traffic light colors [to signal problem areas or hot spots]. So that is also ethics. There is an important book on this called How to Lie with Maps.

JG: What are some of the things you can measure and analyze using geospatial tools?

RC: One of the main things spatial data can do is to make visible the things that you don’t know.

You have all the data in your hands, and you can have different layers, and you can look at one, or you can look at all of them together, and you can also see the connections. If you want to decide where to locate a bus station, or where to locate a park, for example, you can see the people who live around the area. Are there young people, will they be using it? Are there older people, so you need a park with more accessibility? You have all the information in your hands. You just have to ask the correct questions and you will have the information.

With satellite observation, you can see the quality of the water, you can see what kind of land cover there is, if there are crops, natural areas, you have a land model of what is going on. Because everything that happens is about location. So you can understand behavior, what is going on in different places, why people are moving from this place to another one. And you can also identify if, for example, it’s a matter of criminality or something. And if you already know this—because you previously studied, analyzed, and understand what is going on—if you have this point of criminality that will make people go to another place, you can make a plan before that happens. Everything is connected to location. Every decision that you make—in government or the private sector—is related to place.

When you identify the problem, you are winning. Because then it’s, ‘Okay, we have to find a solution.’ But first you have to identify what is a problem or a challenge. And then, something that for me is so obvious, but sometimes not so clear, is that at the center of each of the policies and decisions is the people, they should be at the center of the decisions about them.

JG: How have those geospatial tools or technologies changed over the last 20 years?

RC: You can work with a lot of information in a faster way. At the university, we used to leave the computer working overnight, and the next day we’d come in at 8 a.m., and it was still processing, and it was one image. It took a lot of time. And now what you can do is amazing.… Each thing happening on the land has a specific spectral signature. So, for example, this kind of tree will have this signature, this one, a different one. So with that information, you can train the program, or AI, to make that classification. Of course, you have to check, because you always have to validate that.

JG: What are some of the big challenges at the national or international level, where the use of geospatial data can help achieve better outcomes?

RC: People who are living in unhealthy places, in informal settlements, or where they are at risk, governments have to be aware that it’s a vulnerable place and you should not have people living there. Each city should have identified those areas where people should not be allowed to live, due to vulnerability from flooding, or from radiation under the ground, or in the air, whatever—there are a lot of places where people should not be living. That is one of the main, important problems, to identify which are the more vulnerable places that, from the point of view of government, you should not be allowing companies, investors, private sector, or even poor people to live there. I mean, it’s quite important to know what is going on in the land that you are in charge of, from the government point of view, to have that information to support decisions based on evidence.

Because of Lincoln, I see things through the glasses of land economics. So when I went to one of the states, some people were living in an area close to the river, where it flooded. And [the local officials] said, ‘They are not paying taxes because they are in that area.’ I said, you have to make them pay 300 percent more, so they will not want to stay there. Let them live in another place, where you have the infrastructure and services, and you can tell them, okay, if you move to this place, you will not pay five years of taxes. That’s land economics. If you don’t see with those glasses, you will never understand the behavior going on in your cities.

Sometimes I get quite anxious about the lack of knowledge of that. But now some of the people who are in charge of high-level direction [in Uruguay], for example, the ministry of housing and planning, and the director of national planning, both are alumni of Lincoln. So when I talk to them about the relevance of land economy, and urban land markets, they understand it.

JG: Do you have a favorite map? Or a visual display of data that you’ve seen that you thought was a great use of spatial data?

RC: There was a project that was in Braille, for those who cannot see, it was quite amazing. I tried closing my eyes because you can touch the contours. The ones that I especially love, regarding cartography and maps, are the old ones. They are extremely detailed with handwriting, they look like art. I mean they are amazing.

JG: What’s a great book you’ve read lately, or the best TV show you’ve streamed?

RC: When I read, I always read technical books, and I start thinking of how to connect it to my future activities with the FIG. And then I stop reading the book. I go back to my computer to work. My mind works a lot. So sometimes I just need to sit and watch Korean programs. It’s so relaxing, because everyone is smiling, it’s all about love, everything is happy. It’s my relaxing time. And I also love survivalist experiences, where they have to go to the middle of nowhere with nothing.

Jon Gorey is a staff writer at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Lead image: Rosario Casanova, president of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) Academic Network for the Americas. Credit: Jon Gorey.