Nine billion people are expected to inhabit the Earth by 2050. But while the world population is growing, the amount of available cropland, fresh water and other key resources is not. The number of undernourished people already exceeds one billion—how do we feed the world without exacerbating environmental problems and simultaneously cope with climate change?

Several continuous developments over the past two decades have greatly increased the potential application of geospatial technologies to human rights issues and a range of other fields. The first is the decreasing cost of personal computing technology and the robust development of associated software, both proprietary and open source. The rapid growth of available geospatial data is a second factor. A third is the increasing amount of satellite sensors imaging the earth allowing for the availability of high-resolution satellite imagery commercially and publicly.