Everyone Deserves Good Data

Today, a small drone carried in the trunk of a car can produce data at a resolution once reserved for organizations with vastly greater resources. For many developing countries, affordable geospatial data has the potential to improve how resources are managed and how decisions are taken across a plethora of industries. Hence, decreasing the cost of acquiring up-to-date high-resolution data should be a top priority moving forward for countries and organizations alike.

History suggests that transformative inventions are rarely adopted overnight. Electricity existed for decades before factories were redesigned around it, and the internet existed long before it reshaped commerce and communication. Drones may be following a similar path. The technology has matured rapidly, but its broader impact will likely depend less on advances in the aircraft themselves and more on how governments, engineers, and communities choose to incorporate them into everyday practice. If that happens, drones could become less of a specialized tool and more of a routine way of understanding the places we build, grow, and live.