Mapping Supervisor at the CSO, Sherma Small, said keeping maps updated is a critical part of the agency’s work, ensuring that enumerators can accurately locate households and collect reliable data.
“What we try to do, and we have utilized in the past different mediums for obtaining updated imagery. So, we have used satellite imagery before. We are also presently using the LiDAR data from the Ministry of Physical Development. But, bearing in mind that development is a continuous process, we have recently acquired our own drones. And we’ve also been trained as drone pilots. So, we are now going to utilize the drones to help us to keep our maps updated.”
The newly acquired drones will help the agency capture current imagery, particularly in areas where significant development has occurred.
“We also plan on utilizing them, perhaps in areas where we don’t have ready access to some of those households, maybe because of the location, how far, um, also some of these gated communities that we cannot access. We’ll be utilizing these basically to get an account of maybe how many households or how many buildings are out of our line of vision.”
The drones will also assist the CSO in identifying buildings and households located in hard-to-reach areas or communities with restricted access. With drones becoming increasingly common across many sectors, officials are encouraging members of the public not to be alarmed if they notice drone activity in their communities.
“We are not out to mind people’s business. But rather, we want to have a clear and accurate idea of the housing stock, the building stock of the island, so that we can produce concise, precise, accurate statistical information, which is part of our mandate.”
She pointed out that all operations will comply with aviation regulations and will be conducted at safe operating heights. According to Small, the technology will help ensure that survey teams are working with the most current information available and will assist in updating and subdividing enumeration districts.
“Coming out of the census as well, we have some enumeration districts that have grown beyond the limits into which we would allow one enumerator to survey. So, we would normally subdivide that enumeration district. So, we’re going to be utilizing the drones for that initiative primarily.”
The use of drones will now become a regular part of the CSO’s operations as the agency continues to modernize its data collection processes and strengthen the production of official statistics.