ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some key considerations about an ideal or desired future. It presents an overview of the core strategies that people can embark on today so that people can strengthen our capabilities against, and build community resilience in, future pandemics. Data and understanding what they mean are the foundations for sound decision making. The need for open data empowering open science has been raised by several authors. Both scientific research and the authorities' decision-making have been either aided or hindered by the availability of, or access to, data of appropriate quality and resolution. Data need to be organised and managed via harmonised terms and definitions, and spatial data infrastructures (SDI) both at the local and national level, in land and in water. The Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic has demonstrated that in a highly interconnected social, economic and natural environments, a highly contagious virus can become a global pandemic in no time.
