2 weeks ago
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Jamaica’s disaster preparedness and response capacity has been strengthened with the handover of drones under the Natural Resources Canada – Technical Assistance Partnership (TAP) Project.
The drones, presented to representatives of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation during a handover ceremony at the High Commission of Canada in Kingston on Monday (August 25), will enhance Jamaica’s disaster monitoring capabilities and deliver vital data to inform planning and emergency response.
Speaking during the ceremony, Head of Development Cooperation for Jamaica and Belize at the High Commission, Shehryar Sarwar, said the donation is part of broader technical assistance efforts to strengthen national resilience.
“This is being done through TAP, which is being executed by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation in partnership with Natural Resources Canada’s Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation that’s providing technical assistance to stakeholders in this Ministry,” he explained.
Mr. Sarwar noted that Canadian officials have already trained Ministry staff in the use of advanced geospatial technologies, capable of on-demand processing, mapping, and monitoring of natural and man-made disasters.
The capability is essential for making informed decisions related to migration, recovery, and resilience strategies.
Mr. Sarwar emphasised that the training encompassed a comprehensive evaluation of Jamaica’s existing hardware and software infrastructure, hands-on sessions focused on stakeholder identification, and the application of Natural Resources Canada’s advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based mapping technology.
The project also aims to equip local teams with the tools and training needed to generate real-time data for disaster planning, with continued support to ensure the technology is effectively applied.
“In terms of results, we hope that Jamaica will improve its capacity to prepare and respond to disaster, as well as improve the resilience of vulnerable and marginalised communities,” Mr. Sarwar said.
For her part, Principal Director of the Ministry’s National Spatial Data Management Branch (NSDMB), Alicia Edwards, highlighted the practical benefits of the equipment, noting the role of AI technology and the capacity to collect real-time data in the aftermath of disasters as critical.
“We look forward to the drones, especially since your technical team pushes authoritative… quality data that we can use to train the whole system to determine damage. Simple, impactful… far-reaching activities that can feed into the full disaster management and resilience building cycle of our country,” she added.
Geographic Information System (GIS) Project Manager in the Ministry, Okieno Samuels, explained that the drones will enhance field operations and play a critical role in supporting Jamaica’s disaster risk management efforts.
“Essentially, after disasters… a voluntary team called NERGIS – the National Emergency Geographic Information System team – would go out and assist the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) to do a post-disaster risk assessment. It would involve persons physically going to locations that have been flagged as having a high degree of damage or being affected by the disaster at hand,” he further outlined.
Mr. Samuels pointed out that the new equipment will help reduce risk to personnel, noting that “with use of the drones, now, we could have an automated response to [disasters]; instead of having a person physically go or putting themselves at risk, we could have the drone do a flyover.”
He added that integration of the new technology will significantly enhance the process, noting, “We’re also utilizing Geo-AI, which is a process of training an iterative model to identify different buildings… to know what buildings are damaged, the extent of the damage, to then feed to ODPEM to see what resources are needed and how best to mitigate for future events.”
English (US) ·