Impact Story: Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Imagery to improve population estimates and vulnerability assessment in Saint Lucia

With regards to the overall capacity, the team had already received UAV training and certification before the project, but Sherma explained that they had struggled to put a plan in place for using the drones regularly. Through the project, that changed. She said they had been able to undertake numerous missions, showing a shift from training to practical application in real conditions. The skills gained were also not limited to drone flights. Sherma described modelling as 

a new skill that we are,[…] learning and a new skill that's going to be implemented as part of our regular work process.

She also noted that the team is still editing and cleaning building footprints using drone imagery to create a more accurate building footprints layer. This, in turn, shows that the project is not only producing one-off outputs but influencing routine work inside the mapping unit. However, both Sherma and Patrick mentioned that they would need assistance to fully understand how to use the model, after which they expected to continue on their own and seek additional support if improvements are needed. Patrick added that scaling the approach is manageable but will require learning more about the programming language it uses, accessing post-processing software, and maintaining drones. 

For continued use, Sherma explained that UAV imagery is expected to support the regular updating of enumeration districts and maps, helping provide enumerators with more current information before field listings, including for areas selected through the quarterly Labour Force Survey. Patrick extended this point to broader data integration. He explained that, because the CSO serves as a repository for national data, geospatially tagged datasets from different sources could be linked to UAV-derived polygons, allowing each mapped building or area to carry multiple variables. He also referred to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure as a possible mechanism for hosting imagery and helping the CSO align different spatial datasets. 

Another key aspect was the role of the participatory approach in strengthening collaboration. Sherma said that, although agencies had collaborated before, vulnerability-related projects were often carried out at the departmental level, with others reviewing results rather than being involved throughout the process. This project helped open dialogue on what we would consider vulnerability, and “how should we approach it”, creating space for more national involvement from the beginning. Patrick described one of the main lessons even more simply: “collaboration, collaboration.” For Patrick, collaboration was what allowed different pieces to come together: UNITAR, ETH Zurich, CSO staff, and others contributing different skills to move the work forward. It also helped the team understand what would be needed to replicate and scale the approach, including human resources, hardware, software, finance, and time. As he put it,

We can now sit down and project what we need for the next step forward.