Planet Labs, a leading provider of daily data and insights about change on Earth, announced the successful completion of its pilot project with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) to help enable informed decision-making for the government of Zanzibar. This 12-month initiative aimed to equip government leaders with access to Planet satellite data and the digital skills to interpret geospatial data and apply its insights to real-world decisions across the nation. Over the course of the year, TBI and Planet provided high-resolution and high-cadence satellite data and technical support to over ten government agencies in Zanzibar. With a growing population, the government of this island nation explored how the data could reveal insights for resource management, infrastructure planning, and land-use evaluations.

Through this project, Planet granted the government access to its varied suite of satellite data products, including Planet’s near-daily 3 m global satellite imagery for tracking daily change, like land-use and infrastructure development, and Planet’s taskable high-resolution 50 cm SkySat data to capture detailed fleeting moments in time, such as the impacts of natural disasters. Government leaders were also able to utilize Planet’s digital education tools as well as the Planet Insights Platform to visualize and run geospatial analysis with the satellite data. Through this collaboration, TBI led the process with government leaders to ensure GIS training, data delivery, and support for policy implementation. Now, after the pilot, government stakeholders are implementing geospatial data into their work and testing use cases. For example, according to TBI, agencies have already identified over 18,300 building footprints across the country and strengthened flood-prone infrastructure by 20%.

"Government agencies are unlocking brand new perspectives with access to Planet's robust satellite data. With the right tools, education, and skills, we’re helping them extract valuable insights from it and shift away from reactive approaches to policy and towards proactive, data-informed decision-making. Bringing cutting-edge technologies like satellite imagery to the centre of government enables us to reimagine the state and how government delivers,” said Emily Stanger Sfeile, TBI's Executive Director for Partnerships and Initiatives. The success of this pilot has demonstrated a project model with great potential to be scaled to a multi-year and multi-government initiative. By revealing key learnings and applications, the project has helped inform TBI and Planet regarding best practices for expansion and government implementation.

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