The UN-Habitat Assembly is the world’s highest level decision-making body focused on sustainable urbanization. The Assembly is universal, therefore all 193 Member States and Observer States of the UN are members. The Assembly will meet every four years and is expected to make decisions and pass resolutions that will frame the global agenda on human settlements and urbanization, look at major trends, norms, and standards related to human settlements and sustainable urbanization. Professor Joao Porto de Albuquerque was to speak at the event titled, Leaving no one and no place behind Earth Observations and Geospatial Information technologies in support of sustainable development and urban monitoring'.

The event focused on the SDG indicators monitoring framework requires the integration of non-conventional approaches into data collection processes, which includes Earth Observation and Geospatial Information (EO & GI), as well as community-led data initiatives. Many countries are already taking advance of the opportunities brought by these technologies into their statistical data architecture, while city and national authorities are using them as a basis for understanding the spatial distribution of their urban fabric, and in turn, supporting data-driven decision-making processes.

The event brought together partners from various global and regional agencies supporting EO & GI initiatives, diverse slum mapping experts, as well as member states to showcase how adoption and integration of EO&GI technologies are supporting data generation processes. Results of EO & GI were presented based geostatistical models being developed to distinguish areas with slum-like characteristics from other types of settlements, and feedback from member states and other partners on the applicability and scalability of these models and related methodologies in tracking urban inequalities.