United Nations Geographic Information Working Group

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United Nations Geographic Information Working
Group
UNGIWG Towards a United Nations Spatial Data
Infrastructure - UNSDI
Suha Ulgen Coordinator - UNGIWG
Secretariat Global Symposium 5
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What is it?

• A voluntary network of UN specialized agencies,
  departments, programmes and funds
• Established in March 2000 to
• Provide a forum to discuss emerging technologies,
  experience with applications, and coordinate
  actions
• Facilitate collaboration at the technical level
• Formulate policies concerning geographic
  information in the UN-system and with member
  states
• Address common geospatial issues - maps,
  boundaries, data access and exchange, adherence
  to international standards, naming conventions
  and location

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Organization

• Co-chairs
• OCHA and UNHCR
• (rotating secretariat April 2007 2009).
• Members
• FAO, WFP, DPKO, OCHA, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNEP, UNHCR,
  UNICEF, UNODC, UNOPS, WHO, WORLD BANK, and 19
  others.

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Organization

• Task Groups
• International, administrative boundaries and core
  geo-database
• Remote sensing
• Interoperable services
• GIS map production guidelines
• Global Navigation Satellite Systems

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Focus

• Building a United Nations
• Spatial Data Infrastructure
• UNSDI

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SDI Concept -1

• SDI Spatial Data Infrastructure
• Spatial Data Answer the question Where?
• Where is the emergency?Where are the
  beneficiaries?Where are the different
  implementing partners?Where are the water
  resources?
• Infrastructure The term infrastructure usefully
  encapsulates the sense of a reliable foundation
  for exchange of geospatial information, somewhat
  analogous to a conventional infrastructure of
  rail, road, communications and port links that
  move goods to support economic activity.

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SDI Concept -2
An enabling framework for multiple business
activities to achieve significant improvement in
capabilities and efficiency through re-use of
resources
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Why a UNSDI?

• To promote more effective and efficient use of
  geospatial data information for UN business
  purposes, supporting the overall Mission of the
  UN and achievement of UN Millennium Development
  Goals (MDGs)

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UNSDI Implementation

• Bottom-up (distributed)
• Based on Service Oriented Architecture (SAO)
• Thematic SDIs (environment, humanitarian, peace
  keeping, development, etc.)
• Interoperable (SDIs talking to SDIs)
• Evolving
• UNSDI (a system of systems)

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UNSDI business drivers

• Provision of spatial data and information
• cartographic data, imagery, GIS services
• thematic data to support sustainability
• global and regional environmental observation and
  assessment
• emergency response and disaster preparedness
• Development of common data services to
• promote reuse
• adopt/develop data standards and infrastructure
• Capacity building
• internal and with member states
• Promotion of partnerships and cooperation

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Key UNSDI stakeholders

• Users and generators of spatial data sets
  global down to local/community scale
• UN Secretariat and various programmes, agencies,
  funds, members states, regional organisations,
  academia, not-for-profit entities
• UN Geospatial Information Working Group (UNGIWG)
• Main UN agencies
• Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
• UN Environment Program (UNEP)
• World Food Program (WFP)
• Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
  (OCHA)
• Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO)
• UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)
• World Food Program (WFP)

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UNSDI Current Status

• Development of an Institutional and Technical
  Governance Framework that
• Establishes UNSDI as part of the current UN
  reform
• Describes the roles of UNGIWG members and other
  interested stakeholders in planning and
  implementing the UNSDI
• Addresses critical priority technical governance
  issues in reference to key Use Cases and
  associated roles for major actors

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UNGIWG and GIST

• Two coordinating bodies for geospatial matters
• United Nations UNGIWG
• The humanitarian community Geographic
  Information Support Team - GIST
• Currently, OCHA is the Secretariat for both
• UNSDI technical governance Use Case HICs role
  in Geospatial Information Management
• GIST as the geospatial information management
  platform for the Interagency Information
  Management Working Group (IA IM WG)

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• 8th Meeting of UNGIWG
• Bangkok, Thailand
• 28-30 November 2007
• www.ungiwg.org
• contact_at_ungiwgsec.org