Humanitarian organisations are relying more and more on geodata, geographical information science and (geo)artificial intelligence (jointly geo-information workflows). This is not only aiding with the decision making during aid operations after a disaster, but also increasingly for data-informed disaster risk reduction management. Obviously these workflows and the generated information itself also brings risks with it, among others the incorrect or biased classification of people or groups. How to tackle such ethical issues is the central focus of this program.

The agrarian crisis in India is one of the most pressing issues in the country, affecting hundreds of millions of people in their livelihoods, many of them small farmers and their families. The agrarian sector is in urgent need of reform and the issue has taken centre stage in public debate. This project brings together regional experts to better understand the geographical differences in agrarian distress. Working groups focus on regional agricultural issues and socio-economic risks for farmers, and make suggestions for region-specific policy solutions. Results inform complex decision-making processes surrounding agrarian reforms and contribute to finding long-term structural solutions.

(Public) asset-owners currently struggle to assess the condition of their bridges and quay walls, often long passed their (technical) end of service-life, and to decide on measures needed. There is an urgent need for reliable and transparent knowledge and decision-support tools on maintenance prioritisation and lifetime-extension. LiveQuay provides an integrated assessment of the safety and performance of bridges and quay walls in a decision support platform that is interactive and based on values from stakeholders. Our evolving, probabilistic physics-informed machine-learning system will indicate more accurately and faster than currently, whether structures are still safe to operate or approaching failure.

Studies that specifically address the contribution of urban kampongs to the city economy are scarce of it is yet unclear how can and should strategies formulated at the local government level integrate and collaborate with co-existing informal economies. Therefore, our research aims to analyze the relationship between the informal economies of kampongs and formal creative industries strategies, and how these impact the spatial, social and economic development of kampongs. The study will identify: the commodification of informal industries and their contribution to local economy, social and economic opportunities for Small Medium Enterprises, and the mutual relationship between the informal economy and land use patterns. The study also addresses the issue of justice for vulnerable communities, by analyzing the relationship between government-led strategies and changes to socio-economic characteristics, land, and tenure security in urban kampongs. The interdisciplinary research combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, including socio-economic, policy, and spatial methods of analysis.

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