Spatial Data Analyst

Organizational Context

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Data and Statistics Unit (DSU) monitors global urban data and agendas. DSU aims to improve countries' capacity for data access, analysis, and policy formulation, setting global standards for urban data. The unit leads SDG 11 and NUA monitoring, focusing on housing indicators for global reporting and strategic planning.

Job Purpose

The purpose of this role is to extract built-up area data on slums and informal settlements and generate training data for estimating housing stocks in prioritized cities. This contributes to UN-Habitat's mandate of improving urban data collection and analysis for global monitoring of sustainable development agendas. The role supports the development of methodologies for urban data generation, capacity building in countries, and accurate reporting on progress towards sustainable cities and human settlements, with a specific focus on housing indicators for SDG 11.

Responsibilities

The Geospatial Data Analyst Consultant will work within the Data and Statistics Unit, reporting to the geospatial data lead and Chief of the Unit. Key responsibilities include generating training datasets for spatial modeling of housing typologies and irregular settlements, extracting built-up area data from satellite imagery for slums and informal settlements, and validating this data against previous DSU outputs for trend analysis. The consultant will also cross-validate calculated SDG 11 geospatial data and contribute to developing spatial analysis scripts, automating workflows, and supporting capacity-building activities, including training on DEGURBA and SDG methodologies.

Work Experience

At least 2 years of experience in spatial data analysis, image interpretation, data extraction from satellite imagery, and map creation/digitization is required. Experience as a spatial data analyst and working with SDGs is desirable. Proficiency in GIS and remote sensing software is essential.

Skills

Spatial data analysis, image interpretation, data extraction from satellite imagery, map creation and digitization, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software proficiency (ArcGIS, QGIS, ErdasImagine, ENVI), remote sensing software proficiency, spatial modeling, workflow automation, capacity building, SDG knowledge.

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