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UN-GGIM:

the history so far and the future

Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB

Co-Chair UN-GGIM

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The UN discusses

Global Geospatial Information Management

“Just like statistics, every country must have

authoritative, trusted, maintained, definitive

mapping data”

Professor Paul Cheung, Director, United Nations Statistics Division, Geospatial World Forum

Amsterdam, May 2013

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Second Session of the Committee of Experts

August 2012

“…building effective geospatial

infrastructures and promoting

greater use of geospatial

information are part of a new

frontier in harnessing science and

technology for advancing

sustainable development.”

Wu Hungbo Under-Secretary General, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, August 2012

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Secretary General

DESA

ODA

DPI DFS DPKO DPA

OIOS

DSS DM DGACM

OCHA ODC UNOG UNOV UNON

Missions

OLA

OHCHR OOSA

OICT

UN Secretariat

Department of Economic

and Social Affairs

UN Statistics and Geospatial

Information Division

UN-GGIM Secretariat

Department of Field Support

Logistics Support Division

UN Cartographic Section

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UN-GGIM

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• What kind of future do you want?

• The Rio+20 conference on sustainable development,

which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012

was the biggest UN conference of its kind ever and a

major step forward in achieving a sustainable future –

the future we want.

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Rio+20 Conference

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The Future We Want: 19 June 2012

“I am also pleased to see that the importance of reliable, trusted geographic information is now recognised. The United Nations has now established a Committee of Experts of Member States, which the UK co-chairs, to move this agenda forward” Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, Deputy Prime Minister, United Kingdom Government, Rio+20 June 2012

The importance of geospatial information

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Cambridge Conference 2013

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The third session of UN-GGIM Committee

of Experts

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Cambridge Conference/UN-GGIM

Ministerial Session

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Geospatial Information:

its importance to governments

“In Namibia a country in which water is a scarce

resource…spatial data is only below water in significance” Minister Alpheus G. !Naruseb, Minister of

Lands and Resettlement, Namibia

“We envisage a dynamic Pacific if we can be assisted in implementing

the UN-GGIM Resolutions for geospatial information. We need to put in place a solid framework from local to national then regional level”

Tevita Boseiwaqa, Permanent Secretary for Lands and Mineral Resourses, Fiji

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Geospatial Information:

its importance to governments “In Belgium we are convinced that geographical information adds many advantages to the

e-government approach, because „everything happens

somewhere‟.”

Philippe Busquin, Minister of State of the Kingdom of Belgium

“Geography is the stage on which all natural

human activity occurs” Viscount Younger of Leckie, Parliamentary

Under-Secretary of State at BIS

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Inventory of Issues

1.Develop a national, regional and global strategic framework for geospatial

information;

2.Establish best practices in institutional arrangements, legal and common

frameworks;

3.Build capability and capacity, especially in developing countries;

4.Assuring the quality of geospatial information;

5.Promoting data sharing, accessibility and dissemination;

6.Embracing trends in information technology;

7.Promoting geospatial advocacy and awareness;

8.Partnering with civil society and the private sector; and

9.Linking geospatial information to statistics

http://ggim.un.org/2nd%20Session/E-C20-2012-5%20Inventory%20of%20Issues%205%20July.pdf

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Future Trends in geospatial information

management: the 5-10 year vision

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• Trends in technology and the future direction of data creation, maintenance and management

• Legal and policy developments

• Skills requirements and training mechanisms

• The role of the private sector and non-governmental sectors

• The future role of governments in data provision and management

Five broad themes identified

Trends in technology and the future direction of data

creation, maintenance and management

• Everything will be, in some sense, a geospatial beacon,

referencing to or generating location information.

• Location information as “Analytical superfood” that can

and will, if used effectively and appropriately, improve

people‟s lives across the globe.

Trends in technology and the future direction of data

creation, maintenance and management

• Growth in the amount of data (approximately 2.5

quintillion bytes created per day) brings with it an

ever-growing requirement to be able to find the

right information at the right time.

• The demand for real-time information and real-time

modelling available through social media and other

web uses, seems certain to increase over the

coming years and presents real challenges.

• Given the amount of data already

generated and the fact that this amount

will continue to grow, the importance of

linking data together, particularly by

location, is likely to grow.

• A hyper-connected environment.

• Estimates suggest over 50 billion things

connected by 2020.

• Real geospatial management

challenges to feed the increasing

demand to exploit this information – in

real time.

Trends in technology and the future direction of

data creation, maintenance and management

• Massive shift in how geospatial information is managed, hosted, served and

how it is consumed.

• Use of the cloud will become the norm, enabling the desired information

accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime, available on the device of your

choice.

Trends in technology and the future direction of

data creation, maintenance and management

• Value of open-source will grow

as more users adopt and feed

back improvements.

• Three trends likely to drive

adoption:

1. where resources are tight or

provides best choice;

2. ability to modify and share

easily, and build common

user communities; and

3. future geospatial leaders

exposed at early stage and

already culturally attuned.

Trends in technology and the future direction of

data creation, maintenance and management

• The trend of moving from 2D mapping

through to 3D and on to 4D

visualisations is technology-driven and

will accelerate.

• Users will expect much more complex

and realistic models, to enable effective

planning and management and to

optimise resources.

Trends in technology and the future direction of

data creation, maintenance and management

Trends in technology and the future direction of

data creation, maintenance and management

• Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

are likely to be increasingly used.

An additional method of data

capture on its own, and also to

complement existing methods of

aerial and satellite remote sensing.

• The ease-of-use, speed of capture,

and ability to access difficult areas

means they are of particular use in

emergency response situations or

where real-time information is of

particular value to those on the

ground.

Trends in technology and the future direction of

data creation, maintenance and management

• The quality of aerial and satellite imagery will continue to increase.

• However, with existing availability of high resolution in many areas of the

globe already, focus is likely to be on speed of acquisition and

dissemination rather than on the quality.

• Indoor positioning is an emerging frontier.

• Launch of new and next generation GNSS

will enable faster data collection in very

challenging environments, with higher

accuracy and greater integrity.

• Improved satellite technologies are starting

to challenge the way vertical reference

systems are defined.

• Interoperability and unification of geospatial

information datasets across the globe will

become increasingly important.

Trends in technology and the future direction of

data creation, maintenance and management

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UN Statistical Group Expert Meeting

• 30 October - 1 November 2013

• 33 attendees from 16 Member States

and 4 UN Bodies

• Established in light of decisions by

both the UN Statistical Commission

and UN-GGIM.

• It is composed of representatives of

both statistical and geospatial

communities, and aims to carry the

work on developing a statistical

spatial framework as a global

standard for the integration of

statistical and geospatial information.

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UN Statistical Group Expert Meeting Inventory of Issues

Thematic Group 9 - Linking geospatial information to statistics

• Determine how national geospatial information authorities and other actors

on geospatial information can best work together with national statistical

offices in order to best exploit the synergies of both domains;

• Explore and recommend effective governance structures for the long term

planning and the management of projects in geospatial information and

statistics with relevance and added value for the other domain; Determine

effective ways of linking or combining the different metadata conventions

and systems for geospatial and statistical information

• Establish guidelines and identify best practices for spatial analysis projects

with relevance to statistical work or indicators;

• Explore ways of combining statistical databases and geoportals hosting

spatial datasets in terms of creation, presentation and use of the

information.

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High Level Forums

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Chengdu Forum

• The Chengdu Forum was jointly hosted by UN-GGIM and NASG

of China

• More than 180 experts from 40 countries attended the forum

• Over the three days of the forum 24 keynotes were delivered

• 13 decisions were taken, these included:

– Strengthening the relationships between the National Disaster Management Agencies and the National Geospatial Information Authorities; and

– Coordinating strategies to provide leadership and raise the awareness of GI within Governments

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The role of the Regional Committees

“Regional committee(s) will be aligned to the global

architecture, which will better address regional

and global challenges”

Mr Stefan Schweinfest, Acting-Director, United Nations Statistics Division,

10th UN Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas

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The role of the Regional Committees

• Promote UN-GGIM to Member States on a regular basis

• Strengthen and support the work being undertaken by

the Committee of Experts

• Use the Inventory of Issues to formulate relevant work

plans for the regional areas

• Draw together similar work streams into a coherent effort

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UN-GGIM Regional Committees

• UN-GGIM-AP

• UN-GGIM: Americas

• UN-GGIM: Europe (in progress)

• UN-GGIM: Arab States (proposed)

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UN-GGIM-AP • UN-GGIM-AP was established on 1 November 2012 and replaces

the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the

Pacific (PCGIAP). This was achieved in accordance with the

Resolution adopted at the Nineteenth United Nations Regional

Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific (UNRCC-AP).

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UN-GGIM-AP

“The new committee will renew and strengthen

their efforts by aligning the unique needs and

interest of Asia and the Pacific with the UN-GGIM

initiative.”

“I believe that such efforts will significantly

contribute to the furtherance of UN-GGIM and to

the benefits of the growing geospatial community.”

Dr Li Pengde, President of UNGGIM-AP

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UN-GGIM Americas

• Created on 23rd August 2013

• UN-GGIM Americas replaces PC-IDEA as the regional

body

• 24 Member States

• Builds on the existing work of PC-IDEA

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UN-GGIM: Europe

The formation of the UN-GGIM: Europe Regional Committee has been divided

into a three stage process:

1. An inaugural phase (Preparatory Committee) consisting of four meetings

spanning from November 2012 until November 2013;

2. A transitional phase, partly overlapping the inaugural phase and spanning

from the Third UN-GGIM Committee of Experts (Cambridge, UK) until the

Fourth UN-GGIM Committee of Experts (New York, USA). The main goal of

this phase is to ensure a smooth functioning of UN-GGIM: Europe from

the moment it is formally established;

3. An operational phase following the official establishment of UN-GGIM:

Europe Regional Committee after the Fourth UN-GGIM Committee of

Experts. In the operational phase, Member States assume full executive

powers, in line with its terms of reference and UN remit.

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UN-GGIM: Europe

Future activity:

• Continue efforts to create UN-GGIM: Europe through

three Working Groups

• Formalise the institutional arrangements

for UN-GGIM: Europe

• Develop a formal proposal to UN-GGIM4 on

the establishment of UN-GGIM: Europe

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UN-GGIM: Arab States

…over to you…