Large Grant To UN For GIS Development In World's Poorest Cities

ESRI's $15 million grant will provide geographic information systems software to urban planners, and train them in its use.

1 minute read

February 6, 2003, 2:00 PM PST

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech


"The money is going to the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), set up to help governments tackle the problems of rapid urbanisation. It would help city planners to identify areas with high infant mortality rates, for example, or slums without basic services, helping them to target their resources. "Urban indicators they will be able to quantify include poverty, environmental degradation, inadequate services, infrastructure degeneration, and lack of access to land and shelter.""The grant, which totals $15,162,500, will provide each city with about $15,000-worth of geographic information systems (GIS) software, technical support, upgrades and training." "In 2003 about 350 cities are likely to benefit, with the others included later."

Thanks to Mike Sabel

Thursday, February 6, 2003 in BBC News

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