NGIS Australia project wins UN award

A Perth geospatial business has been recognised by the United Nations for its contribution to a project named as one of 16 globally for its “game-changing” actions addressing climate change.

Burswood-based NGIS Australia, along with project partners the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has been recognised in an awards ceremony in London for its project mapping Pacific islands to help citizens prepare for rising sea levels.

NGIS general manager for international development, Nathan Eaton, said the project had identified more than 10,000 buildings at high risk of inundation within the next 80 years, including critical infrastructure such health facilities and schools.

The project was recognised by the United Nations Climate Change secretariat as one of 2015’s Momentum for Change Lighthouse activities, alongside Dutch social enterprise Fairphone, which is aiming to produce a sustainable, conflict-free smartphone, and an initiative enabling 40 Latin American cities to take concrete climate action.

Mr Eaton said he was delighted to have been able to successfully partner with government to provide aerial imagery and flood information as well as data training to at-risk communities in Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.