Azercosmos: Real problems need to be studied to offer concrete solutions to local organizations

The Azerbaijan Space Agency (Azercosmos) cannot offer specific solutions to local organizations without knowing their real problems, stated Ismat Bakhishov, Director of the Geographic Information Systems Center of the Space Agency (Azercosmos), at an event titled "Empowering Cities with Better Data - Accessible and Actionable Data for Policy Making and Decision Making," organized within the framework of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) held in Baku, Report informs.

He noted that specific problems exist for organizations, and from the perspective of a data provider, there must be clear cooperation among these organizations: "We have applications, but they are not for everyone. They are unique applications. There is a solution, but it is not specific. For effective cooperation, we need clear, practical applications based on real problems."

According to the director, as an Agency, they can provide capacity building for relevant organizations: "We have an observation training center within the National Aviation Academy. It is open to all organizations and offers various types of programs, including remote sensing, observation, and artificial intelligence. We have awareness programs that teach how to work with data, help them understand how they can benefit from it, what the requirements are, and what they can obtain from this data."

Emphasizing the importance of shared platforms, I. Bakhishov said they can help address data exchange and standardization issues: "For example, in our case, we have not yet established a national data infrastructure, but this is an important component because all organizations must work with the same standards. Data exchange must also be secure, which is equally important. Today, we are providing cloud-based platforms and applications to relevant organizations, particularly local state administrative management organizations. They can manage all data related to the city's green zones and sanitary cleaning zones. So, this is actually possible. However, for this to work, we need to understand the clear problems that exist. By doing so, I believe we will be able to solve the problem."