DESCRIBING THE HUMAN CONDITION - FROM HUMAN DEVELOPMENT TO HUMAN SECURITY: AN ENVIRONMENTAL REMOTE SENSING AND GIS APPROACH

David Hastings
UN-ESCAP, Bangkok 10200, Thailand

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     Last modified: October 20, 2008
     Presentation date: 12/04/2008 11:00 AM in MH 1011
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Abstract
Since 1990, the Human Development Index has revolutionized discussions about human development. However, it suffers from two deficiencies, which can now be rectified: geographic incompleteness and insufficiently “on-target” representation of economy, knowledge, and “a long and healthy life” at the level of the individual. This report summarizes attempts to rectify those deficiencies.

In addition, steady advances in attempts to characterize different aspects of the human condition have resulted in indicators, covering varying numbers of countries, on a wide variety of subjects. If one were challenged to create an index on the condition of people-centric Human Security, such as the authors of the Human Development Index faced in 1990 and expanded qualitatively in 1994, one could now begin to do so – at least for the sake of discussion and resultant improvements. A prototype Human Security Index is presented
and initially assessed here.

In 1964, Journalist Luigi Barzini characterized “Gli Italiani” (the Italians). In 1967, Desmond Morris characterized human beings from a zoologist's perspective in “The Naked Ape.” Now, in 2008, we can use Remote Sensing and GIS approaches to characterizing some aspects of the Earth that we cannot directly measure; our approaches can be used to enrich the characterization of the human condition.

Appendices
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