The Future Lies In Machine Learning, says Rogerio Bonifacio of UN WFP

In an exclusive interview with GeoBuiz Rogerio Bonifacio Head, Geospatial Anaysis Unit, UN World Food Program says that The Future Lies In Machine Learning. The World Food Programme is involved in humanitarian systems. The usage of earth observation data has grown manifold in recent years, with more focus on medium- and low-resolution data streams. Geospatial technologies provides wide spatial coverage required to keep track of hazards. Each agency has separate, but coordinated usage of earth observation data. We don’t have a mandate to produce specific types of information. What we produce is operational, and is freely available on our websites. There is variety of use cases of earth observation. We also use long term data to support our climate services related activities. No other data would allow us to monitor an entire continent in a near-real-time basis. We use earth observation because of its observation frequency and its availability. We have a private sector partnership vision. We have now stepped into a stage where we are trying to prove the usefulness of the information. Cost is a crucial factor and hopefully it can be cut down. We have to review our use cases and different constellations. The future is in the machine learning side of the analysis because of the sheer volume of data.