Project Details
Description
Thematic pillars
UNITAC-Hamburg’s core undertaking is developing digital tools for public participation, spatial analysis, mapping, modelling, simulation and visualization to promote sustainable cities and communities. Solutions developed to date include advanced machine learning models applied to pressing urban challenges, and simple, adaptive tools that help cities address their most fundamental needs and priorities, such as data collection in challenging environments. In 2026/28, UNITAC-Hamburg will continue to focus around the following three thematic areas to support member States and relevant partners:
Thematic Area 1: Mapping, spatial analysis, data analytics and visualization
Actions on promoting adequate housing and in particular, the SDG 11.1 target of “adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums” require efficient and robust mapping, targeting, and monitoring. UNITAC-Hamburg’s tools and monitoring instruments, which include the mapping of spatial inequalities, such as the Building and Establishment Automated Mapper (BEAM) can play a key role in bridging current gaps. The BEAM uses machine learning to map rooftops in informal settlements. It has been applied in nine countries and ten different cities so far, including South Africa, eight capital cities in Central America, and Namibia. Mapping can help improve our understanding of informal settlements and improve service provision and scale it up while ensuring that services reach the most marginalized communities. UNITAC will continue to develop BEAM alongside other AI tools to scale it up to other countries and cities. UNITAC-Hamburg will test approaches, develop digital tools, and issue guidance that can be used by urban managers and others for mapping, spatial planning data analytics, and visualization of urban trends and data. These capabilities are also essential for understanding climate-related spatial patterns, since environmental stress, exposure and land-use change are closely intertwined with urban inequalities. Future developments, depending on additional fundraising and under the guidance of UNITAC-Hamburg's Project Management Committee, may include:
•Upgrading UNITAC tools, including BEAM, for use on different types of input data, such as drone imagery (it currently functions on aerial and satellite imagery);
•Increasing the scalability of the tools, including BEAM (it is currently capable of analyzing individual cities or parts of a city);
•Exploring other applications at the intersection of machine learning and remotely sensed imagery for urban development, such as detecting deprived areas;
•Combining these mapping outputs with bottom-up data collection to better enable local governments to understand and respond to resident needs.
Thematic Area 2: Data-enabled Urban Resilience and Recovery
This pillar focuses on UNITAC’s role in leveraging data, spatial analysis, and digital tools to build resilience, particularly in crisis-affected regions. The Urban Recovery Planning System (URPS) developed in the Ukraine project is a spatial decision-support system designed to aid recovery planning and urban reconstruction. This geospatial digital platform supports visualisation and analysis of sectoral data, agile mapping of damaged facilities and other recent changes, reachability analysis, simulation of existing and planned facilities, and public participation in the recovery planning. This focus is inherently connected to climate dynamics, as climate-related shocks and stresses increasingly shape the scale of urban disruption and the conditions for sustainable recovery. The tool aims to empower local and national governments to use evidence in recovery strategies, complementing existing planning processes. URPS is a modular system that addresses both crisis-response urgent needs and long-term transitions towards the use of geospatial data in urban and strategic planning. It encompasses:
•Developing and scaling UNITAC tools (e.g. URPS, BEAM) for evidence-based urban recovery, resilience, reconstruction, and monitoring.
•Applying methodologies from projects like Ukraine to other post-crisis contexts and resilience-related urban challenges.
•Solutions that aim to develop an AI-powered damage detection model capable of extracting and structuring detailed information from war-damaged imagery and other forms of climate- or hazard-related disruption.
•Tools to assess and address energy accessibility and reliability which are typically severely conflict (further development of the EnerGIS tool).
Thematic Area 3: Open, transparent and participatory of governance of data and digital platforms
As cities and towns aspire to become Smart Cities, the values and priorities of citizens are essential to ensure a people-centred approach. The potential for cities to achieve greater resource efficiency, while also improving quality of life, is highly contextual and requires effective and meaningful participation of all stakeholders. There is an opportunity to empower citizens to discuss and articulate their own priorities, set direction as well as decide upon ethical uses of technological innovations with clear social impact and public return. Such participatory and transparent approaches are also fundamental, for instance, for addressing climate-related urban challenges, which require informed dialogue and inclusive governance.
Activities in this thematic area include:
•Rolling out the UNITAC participatory tools, including AOVI (real-time digital participation, currently this has been done in Brazil), and UNITAC tools to support urban services, like Digital Job Card (deployed in Namibia to digitalize urban services for towns) and Dhaamiye (deployed in Hargeisa, Somalia, and focused on basic services like water);
•Continuing to explore innovative approaches to participatory community mapping with digital tools;
•Innovatively using existing channels of communication to promote wider participation of private and public stakeholders, and the mobilization of community groups in two-way engagements;
•Combining digital and in-person engagement, curated artistic impressions and dialogue with urban planners to inspire public engagement with future cities thinking.
Within these broad fields, emphasis will be placed on generating knowledge and use cases around the development and testing of frontier technologies. The solutions developed by UNITAC-Hamburg will be tested, applied and scaled through UN-Habitat’s global network of local and regional governments, community organisations and other partners such as GIZ, as well as OICT and HCU global partners.
UNITAC-Hamburg’s core undertaking is developing digital tools for public participation, spatial analysis, mapping, modelling, simulation and visualization to promote sustainable cities and communities. Solutions developed to date include advanced machine learning models applied to pressing urban challenges, and simple, adaptive tools that help cities address their most fundamental needs and priorities, such as data collection in challenging environments. In 2026/28, UNITAC-Hamburg will continue to focus around the following three thematic areas to support member States and relevant partners:
Thematic Area 1: Mapping, spatial analysis, data analytics and visualization
Actions on promoting adequate housing and in particular, the SDG 11.1 target of “adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums” require efficient and robust mapping, targeting, and monitoring. UNITAC-Hamburg’s tools and monitoring instruments, which include the mapping of spatial inequalities, such as the Building and Establishment Automated Mapper (BEAM) can play a key role in bridging current gaps. The BEAM uses machine learning to map rooftops in informal settlements. It has been applied in nine countries and ten different cities so far, including South Africa, eight capital cities in Central America, and Namibia. Mapping can help improve our understanding of informal settlements and improve service provision and scale it up while ensuring that services reach the most marginalized communities. UNITAC will continue to develop BEAM alongside other AI tools to scale it up to other countries and cities. UNITAC-Hamburg will test approaches, develop digital tools, and issue guidance that can be used by urban managers and others for mapping, spatial planning data analytics, and visualization of urban trends and data. These capabilities are also essential for understanding climate-related spatial patterns, since environmental stress, exposure and land-use change are closely intertwined with urban inequalities. Future developments, depending on additional fundraising and under the guidance of UNITAC-Hamburg's Project Management Committee, may include:
•Upgrading UNITAC tools, including BEAM, for use on different types of input data, such as drone imagery (it currently functions on aerial and satellite imagery);
•Increasing the scalability of the tools, including BEAM (it is currently capable of analyzing individual cities or parts of a city);
•Exploring other applications at the intersection of machine learning and remotely sensed imagery for urban development, such as detecting deprived areas;
•Combining these mapping outputs with bottom-up data collection to better enable local governments to understand and respond to resident needs.
Thematic Area 2: Data-enabled Urban Resilience and Recovery
This pillar focuses on UNITAC’s role in leveraging data, spatial analysis, and digital tools to build resilience, particularly in crisis-affected regions. The Urban Recovery Planning System (URPS) developed in the Ukraine project is a spatial decision-support system designed to aid recovery planning and urban reconstruction. This geospatial digital platform supports visualisation and analysis of sectoral data, agile mapping of damaged facilities and other recent changes, reachability analysis, simulation of existing and planned facilities, and public participation in the recovery planning. This focus is inherently connected to climate dynamics, as climate-related shocks and stresses increasingly shape the scale of urban disruption and the conditions for sustainable recovery. The tool aims to empower local and national governments to use evidence in recovery strategies, complementing existing planning processes. URPS is a modular system that addresses both crisis-response urgent needs and long-term transitions towards the use of geospatial data in urban and strategic planning. It encompasses:
•Developing and scaling UNITAC tools (e.g. URPS, BEAM) for evidence-based urban recovery, resilience, reconstruction, and monitoring.
•Applying methodologies from projects like Ukraine to other post-crisis contexts and resilience-related urban challenges.
•Solutions that aim to develop an AI-powered damage detection model capable of extracting and structuring detailed information from war-damaged imagery and other forms of climate- or hazard-related disruption.
•Tools to assess and address energy accessibility and reliability which are typically severely conflict (further development of the EnerGIS tool).
Thematic Area 3: Open, transparent and participatory of governance of data and digital platforms
As cities and towns aspire to become Smart Cities, the values and priorities of citizens are essential to ensure a people-centred approach. The potential for cities to achieve greater resource efficiency, while also improving quality of life, is highly contextual and requires effective and meaningful participation of all stakeholders. There is an opportunity to empower citizens to discuss and articulate their own priorities, set direction as well as decide upon ethical uses of technological innovations with clear social impact and public return. Such participatory and transparent approaches are also fundamental, for instance, for addressing climate-related urban challenges, which require informed dialogue and inclusive governance.
Activities in this thematic area include:
•Rolling out the UNITAC participatory tools, including AOVI (real-time digital participation, currently this has been done in Brazil), and UNITAC tools to support urban services, like Digital Job Card (deployed in Namibia to digitalize urban services for towns) and Dhaamiye (deployed in Hargeisa, Somalia, and focused on basic services like water);
•Continuing to explore innovative approaches to participatory community mapping with digital tools;
•Innovatively using existing channels of communication to promote wider participation of private and public stakeholders, and the mobilization of community groups in two-way engagements;
•Combining digital and in-person engagement, curated artistic impressions and dialogue with urban planners to inspire public engagement with future cities thinking.
Within these broad fields, emphasis will be placed on generating knowledge and use cases around the development and testing of frontier technologies. The solutions developed by UNITAC-Hamburg will be tested, applied and scaled through UN-Habitat’s global network of local and regional governments, community organisations and other partners such as GIZ, as well as OICT and HCU global partners.
| Grant title | UNITAC III |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Effective start/end date | 1/01/26 → 31/12/28 |
Fundingorganisation
- United Nations Human Settlements Programme