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by Jan Cees Venema

CLEARSITE Projects from CoE4UNSDI | SDI Magazine

The Centre of Excellence for UN Spatial Data Infrastructure (CoE4UNSDI) is undertaking a set of three projects, collectively called ‘ClearSite’. Find out more.

Geospatial data is any data which has embedded within it a location ‘tag’. Examples of geospatial data are post codes, words which refer to a location (e.g. Sudan), maps, satellite or aerial images, videos, pictures, spreadsheets with location tags and navigation system data logs.

Globally, the UN, partner agencies, member states and other relevant institutions are becoming increasingly involved in a host of vital services from disaster response and peacekeeping to environmental protection and economic development. In doing so, they produce geospatial data they need to share to raise operational effectiveness and coordinate efforts.

The global community of citizens is also becoming an increasingly valuable resource with the emergence of “crowd sourcing” of voluntarily contributed geospatial information.

Currently within the UN there is little capacity to leverage an individual organization’s investment in geospatial data obtained from a variety of sources for the benefit of all stakeholders. The Centre of Excellence for UN Spatial Data Infrastructure first projects will improve on this situation, in close collaboration with stakeholders, by using leading information and communications technology solutions.

The Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT) of the UN Secretariat in New York has established the Centre of Excellence for UN Spatial Data Infrastructure (CoE4UNSDI) under the strategic direction of the UN Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) Steering Committee of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG). OICT, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Office in Geneva, Information and Communications Technology Service (UNOG/ICTS) have formed an inter-agency partnership to undertake an initial set of three CoE4UNSDI projects, collectively called ClearSite, as a UN System-wide harmonization initiative in reference to the UN ICT Strategy endorsed by the General Assembly in 2010 (Section 29 (A/64/6)).

ClearSite will provide the UN and its partners with a Web-based toolset to retrieve, combine and visualize the information needed to support their operations’ decision-making processes. This will create many new possibilities for the UN to “deliver as one” and to become more efficient and effective. ClearSite will directly benefit work being strategically accomplished in primary areas of operation and interest to the UN and its partners, such as Peace and Security, Social Protection, Food Security, Environment and Sustainable Development, Human Rights and Disaster Management. This harmonization initiative will also support and enhance initiatives in the fields of early intervention, conflict prevention, crisis response and management and strategic planning.

Major Project Stakeholders

Australia and the Federal Republic of Germany are the Founding Members of the CoE4UNSDI as the initial contributors to the CoE4UNSDI Trust Fund.

As a UN System-wide initiative, ClearSite is the result of a consultative process with extensive user input from key UN organizations. To promulgate existing international standards and to ensure broad adoption of its tools and guidelines, ClearSite partners are seeking to align with the activities of global and regional entities such as the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association, the Group on Earth Observation/Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEO/GEOSS), the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE), the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) as well as leading geospatial information technology companies.

The UN Secretary-General’s Global Pulse Project, with its objective of supporting social protection policy formulations at Pulse Labs around the world (such as the ones being established in Indonesia and Uganda), is providing initial use cases. UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is another organization aligning its infrastructure development efforts with ClearSite. The Common and Fundamental Operational Datasets initiative of the humanitarian community lead by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Department of Safety and Security (DSS) of the UN Secretariat are also early beneficiaries.

The ClearSite Projects

ClearSite projects are funded through voluntary contributions of UN Member States, technology companies, international organizations, foundations and industry associations to a Trust Fund established at the UN Secretariat.

The three ClearSite projects to be completed within 3 years are:

• Standards and Best Practices for Provisioning of Core Geospatial Datasets (OICT)
• Geospatial Data Warehouse (FAO)
• Visualization Facility (UNOG/ICTS)

Standards and Best Practices for Provisioning of Core Geospatial Datasets

The UN Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) Gazetteer Framework will deliver an infrastructure to enable access, management and cross-referencing of gazetteers (directories of place names), a core geospatial dataset of critical importance. The Framework will also establish a method for validating and incorporating crowd-sourced information to enhance authoritative source gazetteers.

Geospatial Data Warehouse

The Geospatial Data Warehouse will establish strong connections between the existing geospatial information systems of UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes. It will also build new connections, using widely available software and common, standardized data-sharing practices. Users will be able to easily locate, access and re-use UN geospatial content such as maps, Geographic Information System data, remote sensing imagery and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data logs.

Visualization Facility

Using the authoritative directory of place names and the aggregated geographic data of various UN organizations, the visualization component of the UNSDI project will provide a holistic, common view of that information in a consumable and visually intuitive manner. The base layer of authoritative maps will include overlays of thematic information so that the various mandated tasks being undertaken by the UN and partner organizations can be viewed through the standard facility, or, if necessary, by the UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes as well as partners through their facilities.

via SDI Magazine (Roger Longhorn)..

by Jan Cees Venema

UNGIWG becomes a Principal Member of the Open Geospatial Consortium

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) just announced that the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) has taken Principal level membership.

The UNGIWG addresses topics related to geospatial information sharing and quality of location information. The group is working across the United Nations to improve the efficient use of geographic information for better decision-making, to promote standards and norms for maps and other geospatial and location information and to provide a forum for discussing common issues and emerging technological changes.

The Consortium’s Principal Members together with OGC Strategic Members constitute the OGC Planning Committee (PC). The PC is the final authority for approval of OGC standards as well as discussions related to market and business drivers impacting the standards development focus of the OGC. Principal members provide valuable expertise to support the forward-thinking market strategy of the consortium, they influence and maintain the Consortium’s Policies and Procedures, and they approve nominations to the OGC Board of Directors.

“The UNGIWG’s Principal Membership in the OGC reflects the importance to the UN of efficient and effective sharing of geospatial information among UN agencies,” said Mark Reichardt, President and CEO of the OGC. “We look forward to their active involvement in our process, as they bring expertise, international experience and a  tremendous breadth of requirements that will help shape and advance future OGC standards and best practices.”

Suha Ulgen, Co-chair of the UNGIWG, said, “It is no coincidence that UNGIWG’s OGC membership is aligned with the launch of the Centre of Excellence for UN Spatial Data Infrastructure by UNGIWG. The Centre will boost the UN’s capacity to leverage the power of geoinformatics in support of the its many mandates. As a Principal Member, UNGIWG is looking forward to contributing to the OGC in the standards setting process, as well as the promulgation of geospatial information management best practices.”

About the UNGIWG  The United Nations Geographical Information Working Group (UNGIWG, www.ungiwg.org) is a network of cartography and geographic information science professionals representing more than 30 United Nations Secretariat departments, specialized agencies, programmes and funds with mandates ranging from peacekeeping to humanitarian relief, from climate change to disaster reduction, response and recovery, from international law and human rights to environmental protection, poverty reduction, food security, water management and economic development.  UNGIWG was established in 2000 by acknowledgement of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP). 2011-2013 UNGIWG Co-chairs are the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna, Austria and the Office of Information and Communications  Technology (OICT) of the UN Secretariat in New York, USA.

About the OGC  The OGC is an international consortium of more than 445 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location based services, and  mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.

(from OGC, 23 May 2012, Wayland, Massachusetts)

by Jan Cees Venema

ASG/CITO Dr. Choi at UNGIWG-12

The UNGIWG 12th Plenary meeting preparations are proceeding at full speed. The UNGIWG co-chairs planned an informative and exciting three days.

A number of high profile participants will be attending the opening session of UNGIWG-12 on Wed. 28 March including Dr. Choi Soon-hong, the Assistant Secretary-General and Chief Information Technology Officer of the United Nations Secretariat as well as Ambassador Tibor Toth, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization. UNGIWG-12 will also host representatives of UN Member States who are Founding Members of the Centre of Excellence for UN Spatial Data Infrastructure.

by Jan Cees Venema

12th UNGIWG Plenary Meeting | UNGIWG

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA) are organizing the 12th Plenary Meeting of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) in Vienna, Austria, on 28-30 March 2012.

Formed in 2000, UNGIWG is a network of UN professionals working in the fields of cartography and geospatial information management science to address issues of common concern. Since its inception, UNGIWG has been laying the foundations for a United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI).

At its core, the UNSDI contributes substantively to the mission of the United Nations by engaging member states, regional organizations and partners in building consensus, policy and governance mechanisms to ensure that geospatial data and information sharing practices are used widely in advancing social, economic development, environmental and humanitarian agendas.