Kyiv, 27 October – Accurately assessing the scale and detail of the damage being caused to Ukraine’s social and economic infrastructure is a herculean task but one made feasible with the help of sophisticated geoinformation systems being developed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) for this purpose. The comprehensive GIS will enable government authorities to visualize, monitor and provide basic analysis related to recovery sequencing and prioritization to bring the greatest benefit to Ukraine’s communities. 

According to the Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment report (RDNA), the full cost of reconstruction and rehabilitation needs, as of 1 June 2022  is estimated at more than US$349 billion, exceeding Ukraine’s 2021 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by more than 160 percent.

Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine Ivan Lukeria  said these high numbers are preliminary ones, and the figures for damage, loss and recovery requirements are probably much higher. “As the war continues, its social and economic consequences will continue to intensify and grow,” he said. “Meanwhile the report provides baseline data on sectoral and cross-sectoral information on recovery and reconstruction needs related to damage and loss, the standardized methods and IT solutions for assessing damage urgently need to be developed.”

The GIS project was called for in a resolution from the Government of Ukraine, adopted on 24 June 2022. Immediately after the resolution was adopted, UNDP started collecting data from damaged communities across Ukraine in order to create the pilot model that was presented this week. UNDP, in cooperation with the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT), Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) and City University of New York (CUNY), piloted the use of remote sensing techniques and tools to map damage and destruction to buildings in 55 settlements in Kyiv region and in six more in other oblasts.

UNDP GIS Expert Sadig El Amin said damage assessments will be organized in a phased approach to cover all war-affected regions in Ukraine, and “to ensure that no one is left behind.”

Phase one will cover Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Zhytomyr oblasts. Phase two will assess the damage in Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk oblasts (based on access).

Additionally, during the phase one, cities, such as Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Okhtyrka, Kramatorsk, Kherson, Kremenchuk, Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Melitopol, Avdiivka and Bakhmut will be assessed.

Deputy Minister of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine Oleksandr Dudchenko said, that  this was not the first time the Ministry had raised the question of the need to create a GIS for regional development. However, the war has dramatically increased the need for this technology. “The updated concept for the Geoinformation system should reflect not only the recording of damage to municipal infrastructure and the assessment of that damage, but also the stages of the reconstruction of objects, as this affects the further development of communities”.

The Geographic Information System (GIS)  for Ukraine is developed as the joint effort of Ministry of Communities and Territories development,  Agency for Effective Solutions, USAID project "Supporting organizations-leaders in combating corruption in Ukraine "VzayemoDiya", the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine and the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine.

Media inquiries

Yuliia Samus, Communications Team Leader, UNDP in Ukraine, yuliia.samus@undp.org