New Light Technologies, Inc. (NLT) is offering capacity building to developing countries
The invention of computerized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the 1960s revolutionized how we collect, map, and analyze spatial data and understand how Earth is evolving. With significant technological advances, increased computer processing power and data storage, and the ubiquity of the internet and mobile "smart" phones, the volume of data we generate is growing exponentially. Much of this data has a spatial component — often referred to as "big geodata," the vast amount of geospatial data constantly collected by different devices and sensors in increasingly high volume, velocity, and variety. Geotagged data is collected from social media platforms, cameras monitor the flow of cars and pedestrians, mobile phones record the location of users, and sensors continuously monitor air quality. As petabytes of data are collected, new methods emerge for storage, management, analysis, and for converting it into meaningful information about the geography of our changing world.
The increasing availability of satellite data has transformed how we use remote sensing analytics to understand, monitor, and achieve the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. As satellite data becomes ever more accessible and frequent, it is now possible not only to better understand how Earth is changing, but also to use these insights to improve decision-making, guide policy, deliver services, and promote better-informed governance. Satellites capture many of the physical, economic, and social characteristics of Earth, providing a unique asset for developing countries, where reliable socio-economic and demographic data is often not consistently available. Analysis once relegated to researchers with access to costly data or "super computers" has been democratized by the increased availability of free satellite data combined with powerful cloud computing and open-source analytical tools — enabling local governments and agencies to use satellite data to improve sector diagnostics, development indicators, program monitoring, and service delivery.
Recent cloud-based computational platforms have become increasingly accessible and allow analysis to scale across space and time. One such platform is Google Earth Engine (GEE), which leverages cloud-computational services for planetary-scale analysis and consists of petabytes of geospatial and tabular data — including a full archive of Landsat scenes — together with a JavaScript/Python API and algorithms for supervised image classification. Publicly available satellite data (e.g., Landsat and Sentinel) is now brought to the cloud and analyzed with machine learning algorithms without the need to download and upload large volumes of data.
To help developing countries best utilize these innovations, NLT is offering, for the first time, a hands-on workshop that aims to make new advancements in big geodata and remote sensing more accessible to decision- and policy-makers in developing countries, from the local to the national levels, focusing on free and publicly available analytical platforms and datasets.
This week, NLT's team is teaching a "Learning by Doing, Learning by Delivery" workshop to World Bank staff in Yangon, Myanmar. The workshop provides participants the theoretical background and technical tools for using free, open-source satellite data for remote sensing analysis at scale. By demonstrating concrete applications and case studies, the workshop series illustrates how "spatial information feeds (SIFs)" can be linked to more recurrent decision-making in developing countries.
A senior economist for the World Bank's Macroeconomic, Trade and Investment practice — who leads the country program on trade facilitation and logistics in Myanmar — noted that the technology opens the door for the Bank team to new ideas for addressing development issues. For a country experiencing economic and political transitions, and where subnational data is difficult to obtain, the technology can bring a better understanding of how policies, trade corridors, and the incidence of armed conflict affect development across states and regions.
NLT's Chief Scientist explained that the workshop involves hands-on coding sessions illustrating how state-of-the-art remote sensing tools can be used to better understand today's changing world — for example, mapping land cover and land use, measuring economic development with nighttime lights, mapping urbanization and deforestation, performing impact evaluation, and identifying communities at risk of environmental hazards such as flooding. The workshop is part of NLT's effort to provide accessible geospatial tools to developing countries that promote sustainable development and strengthen awareness of using spatial data for informed decision-making.
About New Light Technologies
New Light Technologies (NLT) is a Washington, DC-based firm with 25+ years of experience delivering:
- Geospatial systems and enterprise GIS
- Cloud-native data platforms
- AI/ML and advanced analytics
- DevSecOps and cybersecurity solutions
NLT supports federal, state, and international organizations in operationalizing data for mission impact.