Isolation Plus
Identifying the “Hidden Vulnerable” Communities
When the Covid-19 crisis dramatically restricted everyone’s way of living, we responded in typical Astrosat style. We began to utilise our resources, coupled with the reinvestment of our business revenues, to create a technology that could back a community-wide endeavour.
As society transitions out of the lockdown phase and into a ‘new normal’ way of living, building back better has become a major focus. Communities who are most at risk of suffering from the long-term impacts of the pandemic are those comprising of individuals who are unknown to the healthcare services, local authorities (LA) or community voluntary organisations (CVO). These individuals remain just one step away from suddenly finding themselves in need of help. These communities are termed the “hidden vulnerable”.
Isolation Plus leverages the strengths of space data in combination with publicly available ground data to identify these “hidden vulnerable” communities. We worked with user organisations, i.e., LA, CVO, charities and third sector organisations, to support them so that when we overcome this unprecedented period, our society and all its members emerge stronger than ever before.
The ‘Isolation Plus’ tool
Astrosat developed Isolation Plus in 2020 through funding from the UK Space Agency and European Space Agency. We worked with 14 charities across Scotland to provide guidance whilst developing the product. Data that could be beneficial to the charities in identifying ‘‘hidden vulnerable’’ communities were made accessible via Isolation Plus and this was updated regularly. Isolation Plus currently offers over 50 datasets at their disposal.
Beyond economic and demographic data, we’ve gone as far as making space data accessible via our platform. Examples include air pollution, geographic isolation, access to green spaces, employment vulnerability, climate vulnerability, social isolation, poor mental health, fuel poverty and transport poverty.
All of this valuable data contained within Isolation Plus can be viewed using Astrosat’s very own data visualisation and analysis platform called ORBIS. This provides actionable intelligence to those who can make real changes that impact public policy and channel funding towards investment in resources and infrastructure that benefit society as a whole.
If you are a local authority, a community voluntary organisation, charity, or third sector organisation in the UK and would like to find out more about Isolation Plus, please drop us an email: isolationplus@astrosat.net
