EUROSTAT
Directorate ESectoral and Regional Statistics
Unit E-4Regional statistics and geographical information
Luxembourg, 21.03.2014
WP DOC NR WP/2014/125
WORKING PARTY MEETINGGeographical Information Systems for Statistics – Joint meeting with National Mapping Agencies and National Statistical Offices
to be held in Luxembourg,
building BECH – Room Quetelet
on 18. – 19. March 2014
Chaired by: Mr Gunter SCHÄFER
Draft Minutes
Participants:
The list of participants is contained in Annex 1
Introduction by Mr Pedro Diaz Munoz,
(Director EUROSTAT/E)
Mr. Díaz Muñoz gave a broad overview over the context in which the Working Group meeting takes place. In particular, he emphasised:
- The new draft of the Vision 2.0 that will be applicable to the entire European Statistical System (ESS) once it will be fully adopted highlights the importance of geographical information and particularly the importance of merging it with statistics. A good technical and conceptual infrastructure will be essential.
- He reminded two important events that had laid some groundwork for key subjects currently discussed by the Working Group (1) the High Level Workshop in May 2012 and (2) the DGINS in September 2012 which have greatly contributed to creating the awareness with management of the importance of linking geospatial information to statistics.
- The ESSC recognises the high importance of geography for statistical work. Mr. Díaz Muñoz assessed that perhaps 10 % of the time in recent ESSC meetings has been dedicated to the subject in some way.
- The DIMESA Directors Group has got the task to take care of GISCO in 2010 and ever since the attention and the time dedicated on the subject increased every year.
- Pedro Díaz Muñoz named a number of flagship elements he considers as essential in the near future:
- The intensity and quality of the communication and cooperation between National Mapping Agencies and National Statistical Institutes;
- INSPIRE which has now practically completed its regulatory and definition phase and has now moved into the implementation phase;
- The UN-GGIM initiative and its branch for Europe;
- The GEOSTAT projects I and II which provide operational grid based population statistics for operational spatial analysis projects and has done so already in early projects;
- The Eurostat contribution to the developments via its grants programm concentrating as well on the integration aspect between geographical and statistical information.
Mr. Díaz Muñoz expressed has assessment of the importance of the work of the Working Group as contributing to a new basic foundation for the future ESS.
Item 1Adoption of agenda
WP/2014/100Draft Agenda
All
Agenda was approved.
Comment:There is no point on INSPIRE, but there is a session on INSPIRE.
Item 2Minutes of the previous meeting, 13-14 March 2013
WP/2014/101Minutes of the previous meeting
All
Minutes were approved.
Comment:GISCO has been notified of an error in the names that will be fixed.
SESSION 1: THE INTEGRATION OF STATISTICS AND GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION - EUROPEAN AND GLOBAL INITIATIVES
Item 3UN-GGIM Europe
WP/2014/102‘United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management: an overview’
Peter ter HAAR, Ordnance Survey UK
The 18th Session of the UN Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia-Pacific and the 41st Session of the UN Statistical Commission requested the UN Statistics Division to convene a meeting of an international expert group, and the Secretary General to prepare a report outlining a global vision for geographic information management.At its 47th plenary in July 2011session in July 2011, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and adopted a resolution to create the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management – UN GGIM (2011/24).
The United Nations Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management has been established as an initiative to enhance and coordinate global geospatial information management and provides a formal mechanism under the UN to discuss and coordinate GGIM activities by involving Member States at the highest Government level as the key participants.
From 24 - 26 October 2011, the First High Level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management, and the First Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts were held in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The last third Session of the Committee of Experts was held in July 2013 in the United Kingdom.
The work of UNGGIM Europe has the following focus points: INSPIRE, Establishment of a European Union Location Framework (EULF), European Location Framework (E.L.F.), Copernicus (formerly GMES), ESS action on Merging Statistics and Geospatial Information.The formation of the UN-GGIM: Europe Regional Committee is in a transitional phase.
WP/2014/103‘UN-GGIM: Europe, Report from the preparatory working group on linking statistics to geospatial information’
Ekkehard PETRI, Eurostat
The UN GGIM Europe activities have been split among three working groups. The goal has been to establish an Inventory of issues so that the work may start immediately aftertheformal establishment of UNGGIM Europe. The working groups have members from MS NSIs, Eurostat, EC, EEA, NMCAs, and EuroGeographics. The work is carried out targeting two goals (products):
Report to the UNGGIM meeting of the Committee of Experts 2014 in New Yprk;
Report for European users, which will include broader discussion on current situation in Europe.
By the end of April the UN GGIM Europe preparatory committee will complete the review of the reports and will present them to the UN-GGIM committee of experts meeting in New York in August. The work on a draft work program for UN-GGIM: Europe is on-going and should be finalised by the 1st general assembly of UN-GGIM: Europe, probably in autumn 2014.
The UN-GGIM: Europe can contribute to the work of the GI and statistical communitiesin the following ways: Potentially the UN-GGIM addresses senior management level who can reach out to the political level; Potential to form an umbrella group for the GISCO working group;Potential to be the framework for a network of excellence like the European Forum for Geo-statistics;Development of common concepts for geospatial and statistical information;Develop a common understanding on what linking statistics to geospatial information means and what the benefits are;Platform for joint projects between NSI and NMCAs.
Question:Copernicus was listed among the domains of interest. The big challenge is to make meaning use of the project results. Could this be something that UNGGIM could carry to the next level?
Answer:Copernicus is one of the flagship projects in Europe. GEO has a seat at the committees of experts. We would like to share the information between the different groups.
Item 4UN-GGIM Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information
WP/2014/104,“UN Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information”
Marja Tammilehto-Luode, Statistics Finland, Vincent Loonis, INSEE FR
The United Nations Statistics Division convened the first meeting of the United Nations Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information, from 30 October - 1 November 2013 in New York. This Expert Group, recently established in pursuance of Decision 44/101 taken by the UN Statistical Commission and Decision 3/107 taken by the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management, is composed of representatives of both statistical and geospatial communities.
It aims to carry the work on developing a statistical spatial framework as a global standard for the integration of statistical and geospatial information.
The purpose of the first meeting of the Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information was to further debate and finalize the proposed Terms of Reference and review a detailed work plan to be cantered around the following topics: geospatially coding statistics, geographic data linking, common geographic classifications, metadata standards and interoperability, confidentiality and data access, etc.
The program for the next years: 6 sub-groups were established with particular tasks:Develop the International Conference proposal;Research the genesis, pros and cons, etc of the grid based and population/administrative approach;To develop a global consultation questionnaire;Reach out to the metadata standards groups;Start process of arriving at common terminology;Reach out to the UNSD Demographic and Social Statistics Branch;Start process of arriving at common terminology.
Item 5ESS initiative for the integration of statistics and geospatial information
WP/2014/105,“Report on ESS activities for improving the integration of statistics and geospatial information” Paper for the 19th ESSC on UN-GGIM
Ekkehard PETRI, Eurostat
Main activities on geospatial information of the ESS during 2013 were: UN-GGIM: Europe and global; ESS Committee paper on UN-GGIM and the integration of statistics and geospatial information; Grants on ‘Merging statistics and geospatial information’; GEOSTAT 1B; Task force on the integration of statistics and geospatial information; Participation of NSI experts in the UN-GGIM expert group on the integration of statistical and geospatial information;
ESS Committee paper was presented to the 19th ESS C in November 2013. The paper has two main parts. Part 1: Role of statistics and involvement of NSIs in UN-GGIM: Europe and Part 2: Report on activities to promote the integration of statistics and geospatial information
The ESSC expressed its support for the efforts to advance the integration of statistics and geospatial information and recognized the importance of the UN-GGIM initiative for the integration process. A number of Member States were ready to actively participate in UN-GGIM Europe at senior management level. The newly created Task Force was supported and requested to develop a strategy for a harmonized approach to geo-referenced statistics within the ESS and to base the 2021 round of censuses on registers.
Item 6The ESS Task Force on the integration of statistics and geospatial information
WP/2014/106“Report from the Task Force on the integration of statistics and geospatial information”
Link to the Workspace of the Task Force
Ekkehard PETRI, Eurostat
The Task Force was proposed in the ESS “High Level Forum” meeting in 2012 and its scope was outlined in the EFGS Prague initiative 2012. After being endorsed by the DIMESA and the GISCO working group in 2013 it was established in November 2013.
The mandate of the task force is developed following the opinion of 19th ESSC on its role: "… develop a strategy for a harmonised approach to geo-referenced statistics within the ESS and to base the 2021 round of censuses on registers". It is a link between the GISCO working group, and the ESS actions like GEOSTAT and other grants, and UN-GGIM created to produce recommendations on priority areas.
The main priority will be to support the next census 2021, and the production of population grid products. In addition the task force will produce recommendations for other core statistical products, on essential data sources for statistical purposes, on the Harmonisation of data protection practices and others.
Until now the Task Force has held two meetings 1) the kick-off meeting 20.11.2013 and 2) the 2nd meeting 17 March 2014. Current members are AT, BE, FI, PL, PT, SE, UK.
CIRCABC site of the task force:
Item 7How to improve the integration of National and European Statistics with Geospatial Information, how to improve the cooperation between NSIs and NMCAs
The GISCO working group was invited to discuss with the panel the future cooperation between NSI and NMCAs, how the involvement of NSI in UN-GGIM: Europe at the operational level should take place and in particular how the cooperation between the GISCO working group and UN-GGIM Europe should be organised.
Panel discussion:Gunter SCHÄFER, Eurostat, Lars H. BACKER, EFGS, Dave LOVELL, EuroGeographics, Marja TAMMILEHTO-LUODE, Statistics Finland, Peter ter HAAR, Ordinance Survey UK
Gunter SCHÄFERpPresented and welcomed the panel members.
Gunter SCHÄFER: The use of maps and GI information in statistics is growing. NSIs and NMAs are cooperating much closer to improve the quality of the statistics. There is a lot of attention from senior managementon aspects of the process of the integration. There is still though a long a way to go to, and much can be done to perfect the practical communication and understanding.
Marja TAMMILEHTO-LUODE: The cooperationhas reached a very high level with concrete projects under way. UN GGIM Working Groupshave been established at different levels and are working toidentify and propose practical ideasthat may be implemented in our countries. It should be said that many NSIs still have the statistical thinking and the NMAs can help them establish an understanding on a common working approach. The process needssupport at government level. The 2011 Census exercise has been very valuable and the UNGGIM initiative is very interesting opportunity.
Peter ter HAAR:The presentations provided an excellent overview of the organisationalready put in place. There is the UN GGIM initiative, theworking groups have been established and are becoming operations. The census is clearly taking a lead in the integration in many countries. Challenges remain as mapping is predominant and other opportunities are still not taken seriously. There is much the two communities GI and Statistics can learn from each other: the statistical community provides standards methods,which could benefit the NMAs, while the NSIs can learn that the advantages of GI are not only in mapping andvisual representationsbut benefit from locating spatially statistical data. Let’s start with some real projects ahead of the census.
Comment:The spatial analysis projects bring the two worlds together. Studies have been widely used as the bridge between the communities and here we see the new means for statistics.
Lars H. BACKER: What should we pay attention to? What is our common mandate? The common mandate is to provide our government with quality information for decision taking for a)the development of sound planning and programming b)for development of legislation. For both a quality information on the impact in all aspects of the social and natural environment is need. This is important at national and international level as an integrated set of data, reaching over borders, is needed to discuss the results of promises.
The mapping agencies collect a lot of information describing the physical environment and the NSIs collect the information needed to describe society (social systems). We need to create a common system of objects.What we need to do:
Strategiccooperation between NSIs and NMAs
Integrationof information – create a shared data model for the statistical and GI data and description(s) of complex systems
Development of a data model – common point based foundation for statistics based on coordinates for buildings. This is the first work that can be done as a first practical project.
Dave LOVELL:Most of the relevantpoints have already been shared by previous speakers. It seems that we have reached a point in time when many projects are already in existence, but the joint work remains a huge challenge. I do believe that with he work of UNGGIM there is opportunity to make seriousprogress. The EU has invested a large amount into EULF to create reference data. One of the challenges that we face is that despite this investmentthe commitment is not 100 %.Large amount of money is being spent on the duplication of data that MS already provide. Learning by doing is common in the EU and I do believe that we have to work on tangible projects. We have to agree that success comes from boththe work upwards andthe work downwards which is what we have to do.
Comments:
It would be good to identify and propose projects as different community are often not aware how they could work together.
The cooperation between the national organisations is very important. In many conferences, only NSIs and nationals statisticians are presented. The NMAs have also to be invites, as they have been totally out of the picture.
Until the creation of the UNGGIM there has been little pressure on the NMAs to work with the NSIs. There is a hope now that the cooperation will grow closer. This could work quite well in Europe but in other parts of the world there will be different motives, e.g. land in Africa.
SDMX protocol for machine exchange of data may be extended to include GI related features. This has been considered by some countries who think that consider expanding their spatial reference framework.
It is disappointing that there are so few (only 7 NMAs) presented in this meeting. Maybe the NMAs think too nationally and should be encouraged to change their approach.
A problem for geo-referencing of statistical data is the data protection concerns. Is this still an issue or is there already a tendency in creating of commons standards and thresholds? Some of the proposals fielded by the National Bar Association (NBA) were scary as they would prevent the NSIs and NMAs to work. It has to be considered that NBA is not an official body without a formal power, but there is already a consensus that the unnecessary disclosure of statistical information should be avoided.
ESPON has been very strongly supporting the evidence based policy, but would like to add that the timely delivery of data is also important. There are challenges in this aspect. The policy is also focused too much on the administrative but ignoring the functional approach – where the people work, how and why they move... Is this also considered in the discussion?