Professor Abbas Rajabifard, Deputy Director the RIIS Research Hub, from Department of Infrastructure Engineering, the University of Melbourne, was appointed to the United Nations Global Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Centre (UN-GGKIC)’s International Advisory Committee.

The Centre’s overarching goal is to work towards the implementation of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF). Set by Member States, the Framework aims to develop capacity, promote and support the innovation, leadership, coordination and standards needed to develop and deliver national geospatial information policy, data, systems, tools, services and capabilities into their national government development policies, strategies and arrangements.

In particular, given the increase in global issues and challenges, and the need for actions towards global sustainability and resilience, it will urge United Nations to take actions to promote and build global capability, and develop collaborative knowledge and innovation hubs for harnessing contemporary methods, technologies and analytics in geospatial information as a fundamental infrastructure.

It will also seek to facilitate access to regional and global information and data sources, including Earth observations, and to improve national geospatial information management to assist countries to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).