Mapping Urban Growth: A Geospatial Analysis of Fort Portal and Jinja.
Uganda, like many African nations, is experiencing rapid urbanization. According to the African Development Bank Group, in years, urban population will increase by an additional 350 million people in African cities. Closer to home, Uganda itself sees an annual influx of approximately 300,000 people into urban areas according to UN Habitat. To accommodate this growth, the government recently elevated 15 municipalities to city status. While urbanization offers economic opportunities, it also presents significant challenges. The rapid influx of people strains infrastructure, services, and resources.
The global pandemic of COVID-19, coupled with the accelerating pace of globalization, underscored the importance of digitization in public service delivery. Uganda’s 4th Industrial Revolution strategy recognizes this shift, prioritizing urban development and governance as key areas to leverage technological advancements. Smart urban planning is a subcomponent of this strategy. In line with this vision, Sunbird AI, one of the country’s leading organizations in AI innovation, partnered with UN Global Pulse Uganda and Toro-Dev, with the support of the Hewlett Foundation, and launched the DataCities initiative. This initiative aims to empower emerging cities with the tools and knowledge necessary to harness the power of data and AI for informed decision-making.
The DataCities initiative initially focused on the tourism cities of Jinja and Fort Portal. Given the tourism focus of Jinja and Fort Portal, we utilized geospatial analysis to create city profiles that quantified key infrastructure like building growth and the location of healthcare and educational facilities using Google’s new Open Buildings 2.5D Temporal Dataset, which expands that provides data about building presence over time and height data across the Global South from 2016 to 2023.During its inception, one limitation was the lack of appreciation of the data culture, which in turn influenced the way these city leaders utilized, collected and shared information.
After a year, Sunbird has developed city profiles and trained local leaders on spatial data analysis. By leveraging geospatial analysis, we’ve been able to highlight key infrastructure like building growth, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions.
Engineer Bainomugisha, Director at shared with the city leaders the crucial part AI plays within the data ecosystem; “How can we use technology to enhance human capabilities? As humans, we have limitations. AI can offer practical solutions for emerging cities like Fort Portal and Jinja. By analyzing data on tourist numbers, demographics, travel patterns, and spending habits, cities can make informed decisions to boost their tourism industry. AI can also help analyze reviews and feedback to identify areas for improvement.”, “Additionally, AI-powered tools can support revenue collection and infrastructure monitoring through satellite imagery.”
Dr. Martin Mubangizi, a Consortium lead and Head of the UN Global Pulse office in Uganda, highlighted how the DataCities initiative aligns with the national data strategy. “This strategy aims to create a data-driven economy by promoting the responsible and innovative use of data for transformative development. By discussing data ownership, the DataCities initiative contributes to these national goals.”
Cities mirror the challenges and opportunities of nations,” explained Dr. Ernest Mwebaze, Executive Director of Sunbird AI and DataCities consortium lead. “By leveraging data and AI, we can create cities that are resilient. Our initiative will focus on building knowledge and understanding of how data-driven approaches can improve urban governance over the next two years.”
The sum of our endeavors highlights a critical path towards refining data practices — including its accumulation, stewardship, and quality checks — forging strategic alliances and bolstering capacity for data utility. We are steered towards fostering a robust data infrastructure, encouraging the responsible exchange of knowledge, and advocating for principled data governance, all to amplify the use of data as a pillar for evidence-based decision-making.
