Sustainable Development: A Geospatial and Statistical Perspective

A comprehensive exploration of the intersection between the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and geospatial technology, this new book analyzes how geospatial and statistical information, including satellite imagery, geographic information systems, remote sensing, and statistical tools and data analysis techniques, are effectively employed to assess, monitor, and facilitate sustainable development initiatives.

Qazi Mazhar Ali, DPhil (Oxon), is the former Dean of the Faculty of Science and Professor of Statistics at the Department of Statistics & Operations Research, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh, India. He earned his doctorate degree from the University of Oxford in 1993. His research interest includes image data analysis. Recently, he has been designated as the primary point of contact for the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), and he is actively engaged and focusing on Sustainable Development Goals 2030 through a statistical data network. Within his broad area, he has published his work in digital image analysis, classification (remotely sensed images), epidemiology, and bioinformatics in UK and Germany. His epidemiology paper appeared in the Journal of Helminthology (UK). In terms of innovation in teaching, he contributed in popularizing PC-based computer education in the 1980s and continues to advance it still. Additionally, he contributed in the efforts to revive the instructions for the award of degrees in remote sensing at Aligarh Muslim University. He supervised several MSc projects on Sustainable Development Goals. In the past, he taught courses on various topics, including simulation, computer programming, demography, statistics for business studies, biostatistics, etc. Furthermore, he had been actively involved in the academic administration through various posts such as Director Computer Centre (AMU), He served as Chairperson of the Department of Statistics & Operations Research and that of Interdisciplinary Department of Remote Sensing & GIS Applications, AMU.

Rizwan Ahmad, PhD, is a faculty member at the Interdisciplinary Department of Remote Sensing & GIS Applications, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, where his responsibilities include teaching courses of MSc and PhD programs. His research interests include Earth observation, geospatial technology applications, and GIS data integration. He has a doctorate in geoscience and has vast research and teaching experience in India and abroad. He has worked with prestigious institutes such as the IIRS-ISRO (Indian Institute of Remote Sensing-Indian Space Research Organisation; Forest Survey of India (MoEF & CC, Govt. of India), Dehradun; and Eritrea Institute of Technology (EIT), Asmara, Eritrea (North East Africa) as Assistant Professor of Geospatial Technology. He also had an opportunity to work in ISRO (Respond) project. Dr. Ahmad specializes in remote sensing & GIS applications and applied geology.

Irfan Ali, MPhil, PhD, received an MPhil. and PhD degree in statistics from Aligarh Muslim University, India. He is currently working as a Senior Assistant Professor at the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at Aligarh Muslim University. In 2024, one of the world-renowned scholar agencies, Scholar GPS, recognized Dr. Ali’s contributions to the mathematical optimization and environment statistics fields and ranked him among the world’s top 0.5% of scholars. His research interests include applied statistics, mathematical optimization, fuzzy logic and optimization, multi-objective optimization, supply chain management, UN Sustainable Development Goals, and renewable energy production modeling. He has supervised MSc projects MPhil, dissertations, and PhD thesis in mathematical optimization and applied statistics topics. He has completed a research project with a UGC-Start-Up Grant Project, UGC, New Delhi, India; and received the Mitacs Globalink Research Award for a joint research program with the University of Regina, Canada. He has published over 105 research articles in the Scopus-indexed database and 71 in the Web of Science database. His Google citations are 2256 with a 26-h index and 63-i10 index. He has published six edited books for Taylor & Francis and Springer Nature publishers, and some are in the process of publication. All these books have been indexed in one of Elsevier’s reputed Scopus indexing databases. He has also published one textbook, Optimization with LINGO-18: Problems and Applications. This book is helpful for academicians, practitioners, students, and researchers in operations research. He is a lifetime member of various professional societies, including Operational Research Society of India, Indian Society for Probability and Statistics, Indian Mathematical Society, and the Indian Science Congress Association. He is an associate EC member of the Indian Society for Probability and Statistics (ISPS) [2021, 2022, 2023, 2024]. He has delivered invited talks at several universities and institutions. He also serves as associate editor/editor/editorial board member of more than 10 journals of international reputate. He received a Post Graduate Merit Scholarship Award during his MSc (statistics) and a UGC-BSR Scholarship awarded during his PhD (statistics) programs.

Prasenjit Chatterjee, PhD, is currently Dean (Research and Consultancy) at the MCKV Institute of Engineering, West Bengal, India. He has over 6400 citation and has published over 130 research papers in various international journals and peer-reviewed conferences. He has authored and edited more than 15 books on intelligent decision-making, supply chain management, optimization techniques, risk, and sustainability modeling. He has received numerous awards, including best track paper awards, outstanding reviewer awards, best paper awards, outstanding researcher awards, and university gold medals. He has been a guest editor of several special issues of various indexed journals. He has authored and edited several books on decision analysis, disruptive technologies, intelligent computing, supply chains, and sustainability modeling. He is the Lead Series Editor of the book series Disruptive Technologies and Digital Transformations for Society 5.0. He is the Founder and Lead Series Editor of the book series Concise Introductions to AI and Data Science; AAP Research Notes on Optimization and Decision-Making Theories; Frontiers of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Smart and Intelligent Computing in Engineering. Dr. Chatterjee is one of the developers of two multiple-criteria decision-making methods: Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to COmpromise Solution (MARCOS) and Ranking of Alternatives through Functional mapping of criterion sub-intervals into a Single Interval (RAFSI).