Professor Ebenezer Yemi Ogunbadewa, a Professor of Environmental Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, emphasized the need to establish a National Geospatial Agency to coordinate the development and application of GIS to address various challenges facing Nigeria.
Ogunbadewa also called on the Ondo State Government to create a State Geographic Information System (SGIS) to harness its potential benefits and tackle security, disasters, agriculture, and other challenges facing the state.
These recommendations were made during the 25th Inaugural Lecture of AAUA titled “Visualization Without Barriers: The Quintessence of Geospatial Technology in Environmental Management.”
He identified GIS as a computer-based system capable of inputting, storing, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying spatially referenced information about any location on Earth’s surface using appropriate software.
Governments at all levels, he suggested, should develop geospatial data infrastructure for storage, management, and sharing of geospatial information, and build capacity through training and education programs.
This, he argued, would benefit environmental health, security, satellite revisit periods, natural resources management, climate change, disaster management, agriculture, and forest management, among others.
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Ogunbadewa highlighted GIS’s roles in educational administration through online classes, attendance tracking, enrollment projections, and in healthcare for epidemiology, needs analysis, and service inventory.
He emphasized GIS’s benefits in security enforcement for surveillance, intelligence gathering, creating virtual boundaries, and identifying crime spots.
The inaugural lecturer also noted GIS’s utility in election results transmission and analysis, voter registration, infrastructure planning and maintenance, and business management through demographic and market analysis and site selection.
However, he called for the development of policies and regulations to support GIS use and protect privacy and security.
He recommended integrating Geospatial Technology with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and unmanned aircraft systems like drones, and emphasized support for research and development to enhance technology applications and collaboration with international organizations to share knowledge and best practices.
Ogunbadewa concluded by stating that the future of geospatial technology holds promise in addressing global environmental challenges through more coordinated, connected, informed, and sustainable decision-making processes.
Earlier, the Chairman of the event and Vice Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Prof. Olugbenga Ige, highlighted that inaugural lectures provide opportunities for professors to share research findings and propose solutions to societal needs, acknowledging Ogunbadewa as an eminent scholar whose experience will benefit society.
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