Applying Digital Infrastructure

Digital infrastructure is critical for human development, for social, economic and political inclusion, resilience, and for a sustainable management of resources. At the core of digital infrastructure is the concept of location. Climate change can only be observed in relation to locations. Climate action in agriculture, environmental protection or urban planning relies on location, and the protection of life, infrastructure and properties in disaster response requires location. Renewable energy production and energy distribution is a spatial problem. The tracking of containers, parcels, and vehicles allows for efficiency to reduce resource consumption or emissions. The sharing mobility in the city is based on location information, and contact tracing is a matter of co-location. Digital infrastructure drives changes to the ways how information is formed or sourced, how resources are managed, and how complex systems can be successfully controlled or predicted. Practically each sustainable development goal of the United Nations requires digital infrastructure.