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Business Daily

The Man Mapping Zanzibar with Drones

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4816 Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2018

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Spice Islands' urban planning director, Dr Muhammad Juma, is a pioneer in mapping technology, using drones to get a clear picture of Zanzibar's urban sprawl. But it was an innovation borne out of necessity - the archipelago's population is booming, and so are its slums.

Katie Prescott travels to the Tanzanian province to meet the man. She also speaks to drone pilot Khadija Abdulla Ali, one of hundreds of young people involved in the mapping project, and - unusually in this traditional Muslim country - a woman in charge of a team of men. Plus Sebastian Dietzold, who is building an entire new eco-friendly conurbation called Fumba Town.

(Picture: Dr Muhammad Juma, director of Zanzibar Urban and Rural Planning; Credit: Chris Morgan/BBC)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Think of Zanzibar and what springs to mind.

0:08.8

Honeymoons, spices maybe, tropical heat, or centuries of history and tradition.

0:14.5

What may not is drones.

0:17.7

And the first time I saw a drone there.

0:20.2

Say, what is this? This is a drone.

0:21.6

What do you do?

0:22.6

You fly it and you take MAM.

0:24.6

Can you come and help us?

0:25.6

I'm Katie Prescott and in today's business daily, I'm exploring the groundbreaking use of drones for mapping here in Zanzibar.

0:36.6

We are going to marble the drone.

0:39.3

Drone is new technology.

0:41.3

It's going to be my adventure for me.

0:43.3

It's a new career.

0:45.3

So let me do it.

0:46.3

They've published these images as open data.

0:49.3

So now they're able to attract researchers from outside Zanzibar

0:53.3

to come and show off what their tools can do.

0:56.7

Business Daily from the World Service.

1:03.4

Stonetown, Zanzibar, a maze of narrow streets, overhanging buildings,

1:08.8

many with ornate doors carved to represent the occupations of the

1:12.2

owners of the past. Chains for slave traders, flowers for spice merchants. It's hot, it's cramped,

1:19.9

and it's beautiful. It might feel like nothing has changed here in hundreds of years,

...

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