Global Calendar of Statistical Events

Description: The United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), in collaboration with the Government of México through Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) will convene the Seventh High-level Forum on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management with the theme "Accelerating Implementation: Achieving Resilience" in México City from 8 - 10 October 2024. This seventh edition of UN-GGIM's High-level Forums will continue UN-GGIM's regular high-level, multi-stakeholder discussions on global geospatial information management, through the convening of global forums, aimed at promoting comprehensive dialogue among Member States, and between Member States and relevant international organizations, UN system entities, and stakeholders At its thirteenth session in August 2023, the Committee of Experts, with decision 13/101, welcomed the offer of the Government of México, through its National Institute of Statistics and Geography, to host the Seventh High-level Forum in México City in October 2024 and confirmed the support of the Committee of Experts in the development and implementation of the programme of the Forum. The Seventh High-level Forum has the substantive support from each of the five Regional Committees of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM: Africa, UN-GGIM: Americas, UN-GGIM: Arab States, UN-GGIM: Asia and the Pacific, and UN-GGIM: Europe), as well as the functional groups and thematic networks of the Committee of Experts.. An advisory committee has been established to develop and promote a compelling substantive agenda for the High-level Forum with high-level keynote and plenary presentations for the three days. Additional information including an outline of the substantive programme, local arrangement and logistical information will be provided on this website when available.

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Description: Content: * An introduction to Earth Observation; * Examples using EO for statistical reporting; * Processing and analyse of EO data; * Practical exercises on receiving EO data; * Advanced analytics; * Reporting statistical values; * Question and Answer Session.

Target Audience: NSIs and Other National Authorities (with lower priority), working in the field of Earth observation, geographic information systems and statistics. Participants are expected to have knowledge of Earth observations and Scripting.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: The Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) was established to provide the leadership to ensure that geospatial information and resources are coordinated, maintained, accessible and able to be leveraged by Member States and society to find sustainable solutions for social, economic, and environmental development. The Committee provides a forum for coordination and dialogue with and among Member States and relevant international organizations on enhanced cooperation in the field of global geospatial information management for the achievement of its operations focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF), to strengthen and ensure its continued effectiveness and benefits to all Member States.

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Description: To provide the participants with a basic understanding of how to produce statistics with the use of geocoded statistical registers and map databases. Emphasis is on the use of Vector data and Vector tools, but we will also touch into the use of Raster tools and Raster data. We will be using the Open Source GIS-tool QGIS.

Target Audience: The course is introductory, for persons with none to some practical experience in GIS/ GI/ cartography, wanting to learn the basics in using GIS for statistics production and analysis.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: Understand the importance of fit for purpose data, its availability and accessibility, foster new partnerships and strengthen existing ones among regional stakeholders, facilitating shared initiatives and collaborative projects, acquire actionable insights and best practices for integrating digital and geospatial technologies into their work, contributing to more informed decision-making and policy formulation.

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Description: Geospatial information provides key insights, and policymakers leverage it to make evidence-based decisions. Geospatial information reflects the digital version of our physical world, in which all human, economic and environmental activity and events take place. Geospatial data is a vital component of the overall information and management systems related to the Earth and human activities, enabling us to not only map the current situation on Earth, but also the modelling of nature's processes. By understanding natural and built environments, stakeholders tackle complex challenges and bolster resilience, sustainability, and societal equity. Our changing climate is increasing the fragility of the most vulnerable countries, making adaptation and mitigation even more challenging, leaving those that are already the furthest behind in terms of development further behind still. Although strengthening climate resilience is essential for all countries, it is especially crucial for SIDS, hampered by their unique vulnerability to exogenous shocks because of their small size, geographical remoteness, and the limited scale and undiversified nature of their economies. The primary objective of the side event is to build awareness and explore innovative applications of geospatial information for climate resilience, showcase the UN-GGIM discussion paper Applying Geospatial Information to Climate Challenges, and shares national examples of the use of geospatial information for climate resilience. In particular, participants at the side event will be informed of the following: High-level statements and perspectives on the importance of geospatial information for climate resilience by global leaders from Member States. How Member States are leveraging geospatial information for climate resilience Highlighting national good practices of integrated geospatial information management in SIDS

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Description: The theme "Charting the Course Toward Resilient Prosperity" highlights with "charting" the necessity for better planning and managing resources, where geospatial information and mapping technologies can play a critical role, towards addressing national priorities and sustainable development. Geospatial information now underpins everything we do and is essential for sustainable development across countries, including Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Considering the challenges that face SIDS due to their geographical remoteness and vulnerability to weather-related disasters, geospatial information and technologies can provide data, knowledge, shared understanding and innovative solutions for "charting" the course towards sustainable development and resilient prosperity The use of timely and reliable geospatial information and enabling technologies are critical to address national priorities, for national development and for decision-making. The availability of geospatial data integrated with other data that is relevant to our lives and livelihoods are key to providing better information and shared understanding of what happens where, and in turn address challenges and priorities such as those that may relate to climate, biodiversity, resilience, sustainability and economic opportunities, to name some. The development, strengthening, integration and delivery of national geospatial information policy, data, systems, tools, services and capabilities is critical for the development of national policies, strategies and arrangements and to enable the implementation of national development priorities and the SDGs. The primary objective of the side event on Geospatial Technologies for Sustainable Development of SIDS aims to explore data, platforms, frameworks and experiences for the benefits of countries including SIDS and how geospatial information and technologies contribute to addressing national development priorities and sustainable development toward resilient prosperity. The side event will also provide opportunity for participants to discuss how global cooperation can foster innovation with geospatial technologies to enrich data resources and strengthen capacity.

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Title in Arabic: استخدام برنامج نظم المعلومات الجغرافية "QGIS"

Description: تعتبر نظم المعلومات الجغرافية وسيلة مميزة في جمع وتحليل مختلف البيانات وربطها بالبعد المكاني في أوقات مختلفة وقدرتها على المساعدة على تشخيص ونمذجة مختلف الظواهر الاقتصادية والاجتماعية والبيئية. كما تساعد بشكل كبير في فهم العلاقة بين البيانات الإحصائية والبعدين المكاني والزماني. وتنفيذا للبرنامج السنوي للتدريب لعام 2024، سينظم المعهد العربي للتدريب والبحوث الإحصائية ورشة تدريبية متقدمة عن بعد حول استخدام برنامج نظم المعلومات الجغرافية "QGIS" خلال الفترة 20 – 23 مايو/أيار 2024، لفائدة إطارات الأجهزة الإحصائية العربية من أجل دعم مكتسباتهم ومهاراتهم في تحليل البيانات المكانية والاستغلال الأمثل لبرنامج نظم المعلومات الجغرافية "QGIS" في الاحصائيات الرسمية. تهدف الورشة بصورة أساسية إلى: * اكتساب المهارة في أتمتة سير عمل نظم المعلومات الجغرافية "GIS workflow". * حسن كفاءة استخدام برنامج "QGIS". * إيجاد حلول للمسائل المعقدة للتحليل المكاني. * ربط أهداف التنمية المستدامة بنظم المعلومات الجغرافية.

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Description: The objective of this virtual seminar is to provide Member States and interested parties with the conceptual foundations related to the five principles of the United Nations Global Statistical and Geospatial Framework, to enhance the use of integrated statistical and geospatial information.

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Description: The United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF) serves as a foundational roadmap for enhancing geospatial information management globally. Its primary goal is to aid countries in developing, integrating, and optimizing their geospatial resources, thereby narrowing the digital gap, and fostering socioeconomic progress for all.

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Description: This workshop will bring representatives from Member State civilian science, defence and policy agencies together to: 1. Introduce the global geodesy supply chain and explain why it is vital for national economies and the operation of critical infrastructure. 2. Discussthe weaknessesin the global geodesy supply chain and the threat to our use ofspace from a civilian and defence perspective. 3. Discuss pathways and actions to address weaknesses in the global geodesy supply chain in the short, medium and long-term.

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Description: Would you like to know more about how our statistical maps are created and become a mapmaker of your own? Maps are an integral part of our daily lives, helping us to navigate the world around us. They are powerful tools for data visualisation that enable us to translate complex information into instantly understandable insights. In this webinar you will learn more about the geographic information system of the European Commission, abbreviated as GISCO, and how to use Eurostat data to create your own statistical maps with the so-called IMAGE tool.

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Description: Provide an introduction to cartographic design principles for statistical map design. Introduce basic and advanced cartographic representation methods with practical examples on statistical data. Provide guidelines for creating maps for online publication and for printout.

Target Audience: Statisticians working in the field of Earth observation, geographic information systems and statistics, who would like to gain knowledge and practical skills on using cartographic representation methods to visualize statitiscal data.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: The fifth meeting of the Expert Group on Land Administration and Management is hosted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía) of Mexico and will also incorporate the Second International Seminar on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management with the theme "Effective land administration". This in-person meeting allows members of the Expert Group together with invited experts to review, discuss and consider a number of substantive items that are presently before the Expert Group. The International Seminar on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management with the theme ""Effective land administration", will provide an open forum for dialogue and deliberating key considerations leveraging the nine pathways of FELA to provide the reference and guidance for Member States when establishing, strengthening and modernizing their land administration nationally or sub-nationally. This International Seminar seeks to share and exchange knowledge, information and experience, facilitate peer-to-peer engagement and learning; promoting and raising awareness of the merits and benefits of effective land administration; accelerating efforts to recognize and record people to land relationships in all its forms; addressing climate-related challenges and improving resilience including the technical complexities around the land/sea interface; and broadening perspectives in effective land administration.

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Description: The objective of this virtual seminar is to provide Member States and interested parties with the conceptual foundations related to the five principles of the United Nations Global Statistical and Geospatial Framework, to enhance the use of integrated statistical and geospatial information.

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Description: The Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Subcommittee on Geodesy (Subcommittee) will be hosted by the United Nations Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence (UN-GGCE) at the United Nations campus in Bonn alongside the meeting of the UN-GGCE International Advisory Committee (IAC) meeting from 18 to 21 March 2024. Representatives of the Subcommittee (including Member States and Partners), the staff of the UN-GGCE, and members of the UN-GGCE's IAC that are not members of the Subcommittee are invited to participate in the full agenda. All participants are asked to assist by providing their scientific and operational expertise, and to contribute to discussions about the global geodesy needs assessment and the global geodesy development plan. Furthermore, the Subcommittee members will be asked to participate in developing the work programme of the Subcommittee which is aligned to the UN-GGCE Strategy and Operating Plan.

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Title in Spanish: Taller sobre los lineamientos globales de Naciones Unidas para la gestión de información geoespacial y su integración con la información estadística

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Description: The Second Meeting of the International Advisory Committee will be held from 18 to 19 March 2024 at the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany. Over these two days, there will be a joint workshop on the global geodesy needs assessment and global geodesy development plan where the UN-GGCE and the UN-GGIM Subcommittee will participate

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Description: The United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management had recognized that to sustainably manage that significant portion of the Earth's surface that is covered by water - lakes, rivers and tributaries, deltas, seas, and oceans and all that it has to offer, governments will need to ensure that marine geospatial information management is fully integrated within the wider national digital information ecosystem for evidence-based policy development and decision making. Well managed and integrated marine geospatial information program nationally will be a necessity to meet the challenges of governance, planning, managing and coordinating resources, transportation, coastal resilience, recreation, and other aspects of the blue economy. The Operational Framework for Integrated Marine Geospatial Information Management (UN-IGIF-Hydro), a two-part document to leverage the guidance offered in the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF), provide practical guidance for countries to ultimately working towards the vision of the integrating marine geospatial information into the global geospatial information ecosystem and to enhance the ability to make informed decisions to support the preservation and management of the marine resources. At its thirteenth session in August 2023, the Committee of Experts, in decision 13/111, adopted the Operational Framework for Integrated Marine Geospatial Information Management comprising Part One - The Strategic Overview, and Part Two - The Strategic Pathways, and encouraged the Working Group to provide practical support for countries to extend the nine strategic pathways of the UN-IGIF into the hydro domain and the integration of marine geospatial information into the broader national geospatial information ecosystem. The Committee emphasized that it was strategically crucial for any national hydro or marine programmes to increase their value and recognition within the broader national geospatial information management programmes to support national development priorities, including the ability to address climate-related challenges and improve resilience, the land-sea interface, coastal zones and the pressing need to monitor sea level rise, recognizing their importance in mainstreaming the Blue Economy and achieving sustainable coastal resilience and development. The Working Group plays a leading role in marine geospatial information policies at the global level to support the wellbeing of billions of inhabitants reliant on sustainable inland water bodies and waterways, coastal zones, seas and oceans. The Working Group provides a forum for dialogue and coordination among Member States, and between Member States and relevant international organizations including the International Hydrographic Organization and the United Nations system to enhance global cooperation, advocate and improve the availability and accessibility of marine geospatial information. The Committee of Experts further noted that the Working Group would convene its sixth expert meeting with an international seminar in Indonesia in March 2024, jointly with the fifteenth meeting of the International Hydrographic Organization Marine Spatial Data Infrastructures Working Group and the 2024 meeting of the Open Geospatial Consortium Marine Domain Working Group.

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Description: At its Thirteenth Session, the Committee of Experts welcomed the report of the Working Group on Policy and Legal Frameworks for Geospatial Information Management and its continuing efforts to address the Committee's issues related to authoritative data. The Committee also appreciated the efforts of the Working Group to engage and collaborate with other functional groups and key partners of the Committee of Experts and to promote and raise awareness on the importance of sound and robust policy and legal frameworks for achieving the societal, environmental, and economic benefits from geospatial information management. The Committee endorsed the paper entitled "Authoritative data in an evolving geospatial landscape: an exploration of policy and legal challenges", intended as a policy and legal guide to help national geospatial entities to better produce, sustain and govern the use of geospatial information that is deemed authoritative and trusted. The paper promotes the concept of a continuum of "Control versus Trust" (figure below) when considering authoritative data governance framework according to national circumstances. Given the increasing global challenges and the related need for reliable data, the Committee acknowledged the Working Group's planned exploration of fit-for-purpose authoritative geospatial data and applications in crises and disasters is timely. The Committee of Experts further noted the convening of the next expert meeting of the Working Group in Belgium in February 2024 in partnership with the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Regional Committee for Europe (UN-GGIM: Europe) and EuroGeographics, to be held back-to-back with the EuroGeographics Policy Knowledge Exchange Network (POLKEN) to maximize the participation of and input from Member States, relevant stakeholders, and policymakers. The Second expert meeting of the Working Group on Policy and Legal Frameworks on Geospatial Information Management is hosted by the Nationaal Geografisch Instituut (National Geographic Institute) of Belgium in partnership with the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Regional Committee for Europe (UN-GGIM: Europe) and EuroGeographics. The second expert meeting will be held back-to-back with the meeting of EuroGeographics's Policy Knowledge Exchange Network to maximize the participation of and input from Member States, relevant stakeholders, and policymakers. This second expert meeting will also incorporate the workshop on "Fit-for-purpose authoritative geospatial data for crisis".

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Description: This in-person Aguascalientes expert consultation and meetings with expert representatives of Member States and relevant stakeholders seek to review and enhance the inclusive, integrated, self-paced, country-owned and country led approach to strengthen and enhance national geospatial information management arrangements, resources and capacities towards accelerating implementation of the Committee's adopted norms, frameworks, principles and guides for the achievement of the SDGs according to national circumstances. It will engage and consult with the Bureau and the Expanded Bureau of UN-GGIM, the High-level Group of the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (HLG-IGIF) and contributing countries and partners from the SDG Data Alliance. It will incorporate the formal meeting the Expanded Bureau of UN-GGIM, the third plenary meeting of the HLG-IGIF and the meeting and workshops of the SDG Data Alliance. These formal meetings will allow the Expanded Bureau, the HLG-IGIF, and key contributing countries of the SDG Data Alliance to engage and consult on the implementation of the UN-IGIF and discuss upcoming priorities for strengthening and enhancing geospatial information management arrangements for accelerating the implementation of the SDGs. The formal meetings will primarily address strategic strategic directions and priorities of the Committee of Experts to ensure a lasting impact to support Member States in enhancing geospatial information management arrangements for accelerating the implementation of the SDGs. Topics will include considerations of the work programs of the Committee of Experts and its Secretariat, the work and achievements of the HLG-IGIF, the contributions of the Centers of Excellence, the implementation of the UN-IGIF at the country-level through the SDG Data Alliance, the Seventh High-level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management, the future geospatial information ecosystem, and the new agenda item on climate and resilience. There will also be a number of workshops embedded within the program on strengthening and enhancing the effectiveness of the Committee of Experts, particularly for the achievement of its operations focused on the SDGs and the UN-IGIF, to strengthen and ensure its continued effectiveness and benefits to all Member States.

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Description: This conference aims to promote joint Arab work in the following areas: * Documenting the geographical names. * Standardising the Arabic geographical names. * Implementing the Unified Arab System for Romanization 2017. * Promoting the work of the national committees and authorities for geographical names. * Linking between geospatial information and geographical names. * Enabling the Geographical Names.

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Description: Background United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) as the Secretariat for UN-GGIM and the core partner of the Data for Now initiative, together with ESCAP and Statistics Norway, is convening an international high-level seminar that aims to foster this collaboration by bringing together representatives from National Statistical Offices (NSOs), National Geospatial Information Agencies (NGIAs) and other relevant national institutions to learn from globally recognized good practices, increasing awareness of the global frameworks and resources, and discuss current practices and potential ways forward at national level. The seminar also provides an opportunity for countries to utilize a Self Assessment Tool, developed by the United Nations Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information, that aims to assist countries to self-assess their geo-statistical capacity (or maturity). By understanding their level of capacity, countries can take concise actions to improve their capacity according to their own ambitions, needs for statistics and at their own pace. Participating countries will be asked to apply the Self Assessment Tool in advance of the high-level event and to share the findings so that international experts can provide input and guidance during the discussions at the seminar. The roadmap and action plan that each country will be encouraged to develop during the seminar can then be used for individual follow up in countries, where feasible also with support from UNSD and other partners. Aim and Objectives The workshop’s primary aim is to equip Member States with the necessary skills to ensure continuous production and disaggregation geospatially enabled statistical data. Specific objectives include: Present the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework (GSGF) and the SDGs Geospatial Roadmap and highlight how it can be implemented; Facilitate discussions on countries’ geo-statistical capacity (maturity) and help identify specific actions that can improve implementation, ideally developing national draft roadmaps, which in turn also can guide needs for further capacity development; In this context, present methodologies for continuously calculating geospatially enabled statistical data, inclusive of relevant SDGs indicators; Highlight the importance of collaboration across the National statistical and geospatial ecosystem; Identify needs for partners to better be able to provide support to countries through follow-up activities Programme Programme for download Report Seminar Report , Contacts Programmatic and Substantive: Ms. Vibeke Nielsen, Inter-Regional Advisor, UNSD - <a href="mailto:vibeke.nielsen@un.orgvibeke.nielsen@un.org Ms. Faryal Ahmed, Statistician, UNSD – faryal.ahmed@un.org Mr. Mark Iliffe, Geographer, UNSD – mark.iliffe@un.org Mr. Richard Tonkin, Statistician, ESCAP – richard.tonkin@un.org Administrative: Mr. Jaspreet Doung, Statistics Assistant, UNSD - doung@un.org (UNSD & Statistics Norway-funded participants) Ms. Anne Kerdlapphon, Statistics Assistant, ESCAP – anne.kerdlapphon@un.org (ESCAP funded participants & questions relating to Thai visas and venue)

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Description: UNSD’s IRA for Global Geospatial Information Management attended the Tenth Plenary meeting of UN-GGIM: Europe, held at the European Commission in Brussels. 61 participants from 23 Member States and 17 international bodies and observer organizations, and Chairs of other UN-GGIM regional committees attended. UNSD was invited to provide welcome and congratulatory remarks on UN-GGIM: Europe reaching its milestone tenth regional session and for its inputs, support and leadership into the global geospatial agenda. UNSD then provided an overview of the key outcomes from the thirteenth session of UN-GIM,convened in August 2023, and to present and lead a discussion on ‘Enhancing the SDGs with authoritative and integrated geospatial data’, including considering the prospects of how geospatial information must be integral to the framework that will inform the post-2030 Development Agenda. UN-GGIM: Europe in implementing its Workplan 2022 – 2025, the blueprint for putting into practice the UN-GGIM Europe Strategy, confirmed their support to the broad programme of work being undertaken by the UN-GGIM Committee of Experts and in taking the guidance from the global level and applying regionally, and maximizing efforts, resources and outputs. With regard to the global agenda, UN-GGIM: Europe reiterated the importance of continued advocacy among Member States and their Permanent Missions in the negotiations for adequate and sustainable resources in the UN-GGIM Secretariat, and maintained its position that these dedicated resources must be realized and will be critical to continue to support and advance the work program and activities of the Committee of Experts. Noting that new and emerging  technologies and the wider digital and data ecosystem are fast evolving, UN-GGIM: Europe explored two significant developments that provide a European perspective on digital transformation through geospatial information, national digital twins, and the importance of governance, funding and investment models. Noting that inclusivity and diversity should be included across the broad programme of work of the UN-GGIM Committee of Experts, the Plenary Meeting appreciated practical examples presented, showing how by focusing on strengths and talents of neurodivergent people ensures that they can contribute to the production of geospatial information. In closing, the UN-GGIM: Europe confirmed the nominations of Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia for further three-year terms on the Executive Committee of UN-GGIM: Europe and adopted a co-chair leadership model for the UN-GGIM: Europe Executive Committee moving forward, confirming Portugal as vice-Chair, and The Netherlands and United Kingdom as co-Chairs of UN-GGIM: Europe for the next three years.

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Description: The Second Consultative Meeting for the Global Geodesy Development Plan was hosted by the United Nations Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence (UN-GGCE) at the United Nations campus in Bonn from 20 to 23 November 2023. The meeting included 13 participants, with expert representatives from each of the five regional committees of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) and relevant international organizations (partners). All participants actively contributed to the discussion along with three Members of the UN-GGCE Office.

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Description: GEO Week 2023 will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 6-10 November 2023. Organized by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), and hosted by the Government of South Africa, the week will bring together practitioners to discuss the potential for earth observation to assist in addressing global challenges. CELEBRATING 2023 GEO SDG AWARD WINNERS The Group on Earth Observations and the Earth Observations for Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG) Initiative announced the winners of the 2023 GEO SDG Awards and FAO will receive two awards recognizing the productivity, innovation, novelty and exemplary efforts in the use of Earth observations to support sustainable development.After a careful evaluation by a panel of eight unique experts representing diverse countries and sectors, based on the overall impact, quality, and soundness of the Earth observation endeavors, and its potential for replication and upscaling, two of FAO's groundbreaking projects have been selected to win: WaPOR and EOSTAT.  The Award Ceremony will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, on 8 November 2023 at GEO Week. This prestigious award recognizes FAO's projects for their exemplary contribution to advancing sustainable agriculture and water resource management, and underscores the vital role that innovative applications of Earth observation play in addressing the world's most pressing challenges.     About WaPOR Launched in 2017, WaPOR is a publicly accessible near real-time database using satellite data to monitor agricultural water productivity at various scales. Since its inception, WaPOR has been providing near-real time data covering Africa and the Near East, and it has recently been expanded to encompass the entire globe. In addition to data production and dissemination, FAO, in collaboration with IHE Delft and IWMI, is actively assisting user groups in target countries in enhancing their capacity to utilize the data and create customized applications to meet the diverse needs of users, ranging from governments to service providers and farmers worldwide. Moreover, WaPOR holds significant relevance in reporting on SDG 6.4.1, focusing on water-use efficiency, with FAO acting as the custodian agency. All data, methodologies, algorithms, and scripts are made openly available, and the data is also disseminated through APIs to facilitate seamless integration into existing platforms, tools, or applications.     About EOSTAT Developed by the Bureau of Statistics of Lesotho and the FAO Office of Lesotho, EOSTAT is a solution that allows for on-the-fly computation of the SDG indicator 15.4.2  of the mountain green cover index (MGCI) at the national level, and disaggregated by elevation zones, using 10m resolution Sentinel-2 land cover data. Prior to its implementation, there were no mechanisms in place to update the existing national LC baseline from 2015, which made reporting on SDG 15.4.2 unattainable. In this context, this robust EO-based solution has been a game changer, as it satisfies a multitude of reporting tasks through national land cover and land cover change statistics. This allows for significant cost savings on field survey activities, and for pertinent data gaps to be filled with ensured accuracy, timeliness, and granularity. Thanks to the big data infrastructure underpinning the solution, it was possible to integrate the Land Cover and SDG modules with specific ecosystem health indicators, simplifying the process to monitor ecosystem status in any area in the country at any time.EOSTAT is currently used by the National Meteorological Services to identify hotspots of vegetation degradation, monitor the impact of land restoration projects, and assess the impact of climate change on the status of ecosystems. The Ministry of Forestry, Range and Soil Conservation also uses the tool to monitor the health of rangelands in real-time.  This partnership with the national FAO office on the EOSTAT platform increased Lesotho’s national capacity to produce SDG indicators and fostered new possibilities for monitoring national ecosystem health and ecosystem services. Related links WaPOR, remote sensing for water productivity SDG Indicator 6.4.1 "Water use efficiency" EOSTAT project SDG Indicator 15.4.2 "Mountain Green Cover Index" GEO Week 2023 programme

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Description: The twelfth plenary meeting, the formal annual meeting of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Regional Committee for Asia and the Pacific (UN-GGIM-AP) was hosted by the Government of Indonesia through its Badan Informasi Geospatial in Bali, Indonesia. The week-long event also included a two-day Asia Pacific Geospatial Forum, the inter-regional committee meeting (a meeting of presidents and chairs of UN-GGIM regional committees, see below), a one-day workshop on geodetic reference frame and applications for disaster, a half-day workshop on the implementation of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF) in Asia and the Pacific, and a half-day expert consultation and meeting on enhancing national geospatial information management and accelerating the achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Asia Pacific Geospatial Forum was officially opened by HE Mr. Hadi Tjahjanto, the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning Indonesia. This regional forum, with the theme ‘Geo-Innovation for a Safe and Sustainable World’ brought together national, regional and international speakers to discuss how to unlock the potential of geospatial information through innovation, geo-enabling solutions for sustainable cities, innovation for effective land administration and developing the geospatial innovation capacities. Participants affirmed the valuable exchange of knowledge, ideas and experiences and many looked forward to sound practices for implementing at the local level. The one-day workshop on geodetic reference frame and applications for disaster allowed participants to interact and discussed on geodesy and its relevance and application for science and society including efforts to better understand the dynamic Earth. The need for geodetic capacity development in the region was re-emphasized. The Regional Committee appreciated the engagement by the United Nations Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence and provided valuable feedback to the Centre on its priorities including the preparation for a joint global geodesy development plan. The Regional Committee will encourage broad participation in the virtual consultation planned by the Centre together with the regional committee in January 2024. The co-Chair of the High-level Group of the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework from the United States provided a recorded ‘set-the-scene’ presentation for the half-day workshop on the UNIGIF. Every Member State from Asia and the Pacific shared how they are leveraging the UN-IGIF to strengthen and improve their national coordination and resources for their geospatial information management. The other four regional committees contributed with presentations related to their region. At the subsequent expert consultation on Friday 10 November 2023, Fiji, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal and Tonga shared their journeys towards their UN-IGIF country-level Action Plan. Many countries shared the need for leadership and robust governance arrangements with mandates and legislations. The need to engage stakeholders early in the journey was emphasized. Participants in the consultation appreciated the open exchange of experiences and perspectives and welcomed future opportunities to consult and discuss with one another in a collegial setting. Many countries appreciated the continuous ‘reminders’ to align their efforts to national development priorities and to operationalize the UN-IGIF according to their respective national circumstances. The twelfth plenary meeting was officially opened by HE Mr. Suharso Monoarfa, Minister of National Development and Planning. Twenty-one Member States were represented. In addition, Chile and the United States represented UN-GGIM: Americas and Saudi Arabia represented UN-GGIM: Arab States at the twelfth plenary meeting. At the meeting of the UN-GGIM-AP Executive Board and subsequently affirmed at the plenary meeting, China, Fiji and Nepal were welcomed as members of the Executive Board together with Indonesia (President), India, Japan and Singapore (Vice-Presidents) and Australia, Iran, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia and Russia. Also decided at the Executive Board Meeting and then confirmed at the plenary meeting, the establishment of the UNGGIM-AP Academic Network and UN-GGIM-AP Private Sector Network. These networks are expected to contribute and support the regional committee’s efforts towards the strengthening and improvement of geospatial information management in countries in Asia and the Pacific. All four working groups of the regional committee met, reviewed their progress, revisited their work-plans and agreed to a set of activities for the upcoming inter-plenary meeting period, including around awareness raising and capacity development. The thirteenth plenary meeting of UN-GGIM-AP will be hosted by India through the Survey of India in November 2024. The venue will be decided at a later date, in consultation with the UN-GGIM-AP Executive Board. Additionally, the plenary meeting agreed that the next meeting of its Executive Board will be hosted by Australia at Locate2024, which takes place in Sydney in May next year.

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Description: Leverage technology and your expertise to develop innovative solutions for a more sustainable and equitable future. Join us on this journey of innovation, exploration, and problem-solving as we harness the power of data to create a more sustainable and resilient world. Datathon participants will develop innovative data-driven applications, tools or statistical models combining geospatial data with other data sources to help advance the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Register today!

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Description: This was first in a series of regional expert consultations and meetings to enhance national geospatial information management arrangements and accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. It was convened from 23-28 November 2023 on ECA premises with the support of the Geospatial Information Management Section (GiMS) in ECA. The consultation engaged geospatial leaders from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and South Africa. Staff from ECA and UNSD, including the Director of the recently established United Nations Global Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Centre (UN-GGKIC) in Deqing (China) as well as invited resource persons participated. The group energetically interacted providing guidance and reviews on their national efforts, challenges, and accomplishments towards implementation of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF) in African countries, particularly through UN-IGIF Country-level Action Plans. This included sharing challenges and accomplishments in engaging and working with colleagues across government, including national statistical offices, to integrate geospatial information, statistics, and other relevant data to produce ‘geospatially disaggregated’ indicators for visualizing and ‘story telling’national development priorities and the SDGs. In this regard, the group also provided valuable contributions to improve the recommended approach and related guides, resource materials and tools developed to support national efforts towards implementing the SDGs with the UN-IGIF. This highly interactive peer-to-peer learning approach benefited from the selfless sharing of real frustrations, accomplishments, joys, and pains to improve the visibility and impact of national geospatial programs and entities, and their contribution to national development. In this process, the group highlighted the importance of leadership –including personal commitment and passion – and strategies that can be employed to grow geospatial leadership in organizations and across government. A key element for success is having good governance structures and institutional arrangements in place, including government mandates and resources to ensure the sustainability of the UNIGIF. They also highlighted the importance of effective communication, and engagement, not only within their organizations, but also across government and amongst partners and stakeholders. The need to provide key messages and build multi-agency collaboration was referenced several times throughout the week. The geospatial leaders from Africa gratefully acknowledged the valuable support they are receiving from UNSD and the SDG Data Alliance in their journey of learning and discovering, allowing them to improve their national geospatial information management arrangements, and supporting the achievements of national development priorities and the SDGs. They confirmed the efficacy of the United Nations recommended ‘self-pace, learn and discover’ approach to develop their UN-IGIF Country-level Action Plans and the importance of demonstrating impacts through the use of enabling geospatial technologies including SDG Data Hubs. However, whilst appreciating the support and assistance thus far, the group requested further support be made available to the many other countries in their continent that are willing and ready to enhance their national geospatial information management capabilities and capacities. Noting that the overarching goal of the UN-GGKIC is to work towards the ambitions of implementation of the UN-IGIF, and to provide technical assistance and capacity building for national SDG monitoring and reporting and allowing greater availability and visibility of country data at sub-national, national, regional and global levels, it was agreed that the UN-GGKIC will be a key ‘implementation mechanism’ of the UN-IGIF in the years ahead, and is also well placed to support the ongoing work of the SDG Data Alliance. In discussions, the group of also requested that a geospatial leadership and executive training program could be established within the program of the UN-GGKIC as a tangible outcome to decision 13/101(h), where the Committee of Experts, at its thirteenth session, recognized the “efforts of developing countries to enhance and support the leadership roles within national geospatial and mapping agencies to ensure that effective geospatial information management contributes to increased geospatial capacities and capabilities, and shared knowledge for geospatial enablement across and within Member States”.

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Description: The tenth Session of the United Nations Regional Committee on Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas will take place in Santiago, from October 18 to 20, 2023.

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Description: On 10 July 2023, the Demographic and Social Statistics Branch organized a hybrid meeting on the above topic, in collaboration with the European Commission Joint Research Center, Eurostat and UN-Habitat. The meeting discussed the Degree of Urbanisation-DEGURBA method as a geospatial approach to the definition of cities, urban and rural areas in a harmonised manner across countries, which is particularly important for monitoring SDG 11 indicators on “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. The method was endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in 2020, for international and regional comparison purposes. UN-Habitat, European Commission and UNSD are working towards building member states’ capacity for the implementation of this methodology as recommended by the Statistical Commission. Discussants from the Statistics Division, UNFPA and Eurostat exchanged lessons learned and the progress made in building capacity on the methodology. Data experts from UN-Habitat and the Joint Research Centre presented with examples how geospatial data are used to monitor human settlements and support census activities. Overall, the meeting highlighted the power of geospatial information to assess the urbanisation process and contribute to the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Description: Leading up to the UN Datathon 2023 UNSD in cooperation with the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science (UNCEBD) and with support of the UN Committee of Experts on Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) organized webinar exploring the crucial synergy between geospatial data and statistics in driving progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the realm of big data.Participants were invited to discover why integration matters, how to unlock creative data visualization techniques, and how to gain a deeper understanding of utilizing geospatial insights for the SDGs. The webinar, which was attended by approximately 480 participants, had a lineup of three excellent speakers in the field of integration of geospatial information and statistics. The first speaker was Claudio Stenner, co-chair of the United Nations Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information. He is a geographer with experience in regionalization, urban geography and geoprocessing and works at the in Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) where he is in charge of Brazil's 2022 Demographic Census on issues related to geography and its integration with statistics. In his talk he demonstrated the importance and potential advantages for society in the integration of statistical and geospatial information and introduced the attendees to the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework (GSGF) which allows this integration. The second speaker was Ken Field, who after 20 years of academic career, now talks and writes about cartography, teaches, and makes maps at Esri in California. He teaches a Massive Open Online Course on Cartography which had so far over 200,000 participants and is the author of two award-winning books, Cartography (2018) and Thematic Mapping (2021). In his talk Ken said that every map is a product of its maker, its reader, and multiple competing contexts. He argued that maps are rarely right or wrong but, instead, offer different versions of the truth. His talk explored how the design of thematic maps mediates the message using a range of examples based on Covid-19 and election maps. The ideas and techniques explored during his talk provide a strong foundation for use on any other empirical data, big or small, and including the SDGs. The third speaker was Britta Ricker who is a Digital Geographer and faculty member within the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Through her teaching and research, she focuses on the use of open data, open software, and open science for cartographic production. Her work bridges qualitative and quantitative research by identifying practical solutions for spatial data collection, management and effective geovisualization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals at the local and global level. In her talk she shared examples from her open access book published together with the Sustainable World” as well as some ideas for future SDG spatial data solutions. The webinar is part of a series organized by UNSD to prepare the participants of the upcoming UN Datathon 2023 for this big data and data science competition. The UN Datathon will take place in November world-wide and at 8 in-person locations with the main venue in Montevideo, Uruguay.

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Description: The objective of this virtual seminar is to provide Member States and interested parties with the conceptual foundations related to the five principles of the United Nations Global Statistical and Geospatial Framework, to enhance the use of integrated statistical and geospatial information.

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Description: Geospatial information now underpins everything we do. All countries and all sectors need geospatial information to address national priorities, for national development and for decision-making. Its full integration with other data of relevance to our lives is key to providing better information and shared understanding, which in turn enables us to better achieve local, national, and global goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, COVID-19 recovery, and our climate agenda. However, while the links and the digital divide between the global development agendas and the application of timely and reliable geospatial information and enabling technologies have been identified and documented by UN-GGIM, transitioning and 'accelerating' these key capabilities to 'implementation reality' for many countries is complex and remains ongoing. Thus, the side event 'Geospatial Information: Accelerating Implementation of the SDGs' is being convened on 17 September 2023 as part of the SDG Acceleration Day, on the SDG Action Weekend 16-17 September 2023. The side event will demonstrate the immense value and utility of geospatial information, as a critical component of a national infrastructure and knowledge economy, providing a blueprint of what happens where, and providing the means to integrate a wide variety of government services that contribute to economic growth, national security, sustainable social development, environmental sustainability, peace, national prosperity and the development agendas and priorities of the United Nations. In particular, participants at the side event will be informed of the following: High-level statements and perspectives on the importance of geospatial information by global leaders from Member States. How UN-GGIM is accelerating implementation of the SDGs through its global programme of work. The critical role of geodesy and positioning in our modern world. How 'on the ground' SDG implementation is being achieved with geospatial information in developing countries. Hear from the 'geospatial voices of Africa' as a shared vision for accelerating implementation of the SDGs with geospatial information.

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Description: Providing knowledge and basic practice on use of earth observation data to produce statistics, EO data sets, processing analyses and presenting.

Target Audience: NSIs and Other National Authorities (with lower priority), working in the field of Earth observation, geographic information systems and statistics.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: Contents of the course: * An introduction to Earth Observation; * Examples using EO for statistical reporting; * Processing and analyse of EO data; * Practical exercises on receiving EO data; * Advanced analytics; * Reporting statistical values; * Question and Answer Session.

Target Audience: NSIs and Other National Authorities (with lower priority), working in the field of Earth observation, geographic information systems and statistics. Participants are expected to have knowledge of Earth observations and Scripting.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

Description: <!--Concept Note--><!--Programme of Work-->Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1WSJMf-dl63QvGvfbxTphpC1u98_iFfcYaYAgutCYnYo/edit     I.                   Background        1.     The Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for Africa has been created to coordinate African geospatial development and to contribute to the larger global effort. The Regional Committee has made substantive progress in terms of gaining momentum and assuring the global community that Africa is serious about contributing. In order to pursue strong advocacy action towards policymakers in Africa, and strengthen the effort to turn geospatial information into a real sustainable development enabler, the Executive Board is organizing the ninth meeting of the Regional Committee as a back-to-back event with the 31st International Cartographic Conference (ICC 2023), from 14th to 18th August 2023 in Cape Town (South Africa). II.                   Objectives 2.     The main aim of the meeting is to review progress achieved on the recommendations and actions of previous meetings of the Regional Committee. The meeting will again offer the opportunity to share knowledge and best practices in the development of geospatial information in Africa; raise awareness of the benefits to be derived through the utilization of geospatial information for sustainable development; and look at policies, measures and steps that African countries could take to ensure successful implementation of the United Nations Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management in the region. III.                   Issues to be addressed 3.     The issues to be examined at the meeting will include but are not limited to: (a)  Activities relating to geospatial information undertaken by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Member States and the working groups; (b)  Issues relating to geoinformation policy at the national and regional levels (e.g. geospatial strategies for modernising national mapping agencies) requiring a decision, resolution or recommendation by member States, ECA and partners, or other stakeholders; (c)  Technical issues flagged by member States or stakeholders, or tabled by the secretariat of the Regional Committee (i.e. ECA);  (d)  New trends and developments in the field of geospatial information (e.g. ethical use of spatial data, hyperlocal data, geography and statistics);  (e)  A special topic such as the geospatial financial appropriation framework.

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Description: The Thirteenth Session of UN-GGIM will be held from 2 - 4 August 2023 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. There are several side events and meetings related to the substantive work of the Committee of Experts which will be convened on 31 July and 1 August 2023, and on the margins of the Thirteenth Session.

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Description: The UNSD Global Geospatial Information Management Section (GGIMS) was asked by UN-GGIM Americas, Caribbean Geospatial Development Initiative (CARIGEO) to coordinate and deliver a webinar on fostering effective participation at UN-GGIM meetings, on 17 July 2023 in advance of the thirteenth session of the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). The UNSD in collaboration with the UN-GGIM Americas Regional Committee, ECLAC and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library staged the webinar to an audience of over 35 participants from the Americas. The objective of the webinar was to raise awareness on the formality of participating in United Nations meetings and to strengthen the advocacy skills of geospatial experts to effectively represent and communicate their national positions and requirements specifically at UN-GGIM regional and global meetings. The webinar was moderated by the Vocal for North America, Gabriela Garcia Seco from INEGI, Mexico. Welcome remarks were delivered from the President of the UN-GGIM Americas Regional Committee, Ms. Sofía Alejandra Nilo Crisóstomo from Chile and Vocal for the Caribbean, Ms. Simone Lloyd from Jamaica. This was followed by testimonials on the benefits of participating in the regional and global inter-governmental processes, particularly on global geospatial information management, from Ms. Michelle St. Clair of Barbados and Ms. Artie Dubrie from ECLAC, Trinidad and Tobago. Ms. Ariel Lebowitz, Librarian at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library gave an overview on the UN, its main organs, the UN library resources delegates need to know, and how to access them. The main presentation on preparing for and participating in the annual session of the Committee of Experts delivered by GGIMS included the role and responsibilities of national representatives to the Committee of Experts, guidelines on preparing and delivering statements and interventions and the preparation of decisions and resolutions. This was followed by a panel discussion on what happens in countries in preparation for the session and actions post the session. The panelists were Ms. Pilar Garcia from Mexico and Mr. Paul Riley from the United States. The panel discussion was followed by an open discussion which was moderated by Ms. Valrie Grant of the UN-GGIM Private Sector. This webinar was an intervention that sought to strengthen the participation and engagement of Caribbean Member States and their technical representatives at UN-GGIM sessions at the regional and global levels. The presentations and recordings will be made available on the UN-GGIM Americas website.

Description: During the webinar we will announce the survey on the 10-year review of the UNCEBD. The objective of the webinar is to raise awareness for the survey and generate interest by statistical agencies to complete the survey. We would like to take this opportunity to evaluate, if NSOs and other statistical agencies are familiar with the work of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UNCEBD, previously also known as the Global Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics).

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Description: DESA, UNSD, the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) in collaboration with the Indonesian Geospatial Information Agency (Badan Informasi Geospasial - BIG) designed, coordinated and conducted the international training on toponymy, featuring 'Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage' from 19-23 June 2023, at the Padma Resort in Bali, Indonesia. The course was attended by 78 participants (34 females and 44 males), seven trainers, and 15 teaching assistants. Course participants were from the following seven countries: - Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam and represented a cross section of disciplines including education, surveying, cartography, information management, linguistics, land administration and geospatial information management. This 5-day training consisted of 32 hours of lectures, exercises and group discussions and 12 hours of field work (including travel time) and covered topics such as the principles and concepts of geographical naming and the standardization of a country's toponyms, national names agencies models and procedures, geographical names data collection using modern methods, geographical names as cultural heritage, and geographical names data processing and management. This training was done in fulfillment of one of the goals set out in the UNGEGN Asia South-East (ASE) Division Work Plan 2019-2022 to be achieved during Indonesia's chairmanship. Initially, the training should have been held in conjunction with the 8th Divisional Meeting of the UNGEGN ASE Division in 2020. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the training had to be postponed for safety reasons. Indonesia's chairmanship of the Asia South East Division ended in April 2022, however, they remained committed to convening the International Training on Toponymy in 2023. The training was opened by Prof. Muh. Aris Marfai, head of BIG, who leads Indonesia in actively participating in both UNGEGN and UN-GGIM. A major highlight of the course was the names collection field exercise at cultural heritage sites within Bali, they were: Pura Tirta Empul, Pura Goa Gajah, and Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park. The training ended with an assessment and evaluation exercise, followed by a closing ceremony with speeches from Mr. Peder Gammeltoft, convenor of the UNGEGN Working Group on training and Mr. Arif Syafii the deputy of Basic Geospatial Information-BIG.

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Description: Decision 12/102. UN-GGIM acknowledged that it was a timely and strategically important topic to consider, and there is need to reflect on and position the work in terms of the vision of the Committee and the geospatial community moving forward, and within the mandates provided by ECOSOC. Moreover, the Committee urged the need for understanding and clarity on how the future ecosystem would link to the work already carried out by the Committee, including the UN-IGIF, as a solid base for the future geospatial ecosystem. The question now arises "what is the role of UN-GGIM in advancing the future geospatial ecosystem?". This webinar aims to facilitate discussion on the "future geospatial ecosystem" and help respond to UN-GGIM Decision 12/102. The outcomes of this interactive and participatory discussion will be captured in a report that will be tabled at the upcoming thirteenth session of UN-GGIM on 2-4 August 2023. In discussing how geospatial data and technologies can help overcome global challenges and embrace the opportunities that arise from mainstreaming the rapidly evolving technological frontier in front of us, participants at the webinar will discuss and identify UN-GGIM's role in this "future geospatial ecosystem". This will complement other strands of work under UN-GGIM's purview, ultimately strengthening the interlinkages between UN-GGIM's current and future work programme and positioning the Committee of Experts for the future vís-à-vis the future geospatial ecosystem.

Course Language: English

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Description: Objectives of the course are: * Present the basics of scripting and programming in GIS and their benefits in ETL processes and automation; * Enable participants to employ scripting and programming in their daily work for GIS tasks.

Target Audience: NSIs and Other National Authorities (with lower priority), working in the field of statistics and intending to script processes in the domain of GI. Participants are expected to have knowledge of QGIS and spatial analysis. This course is not a beginner GIS course - The knowledge from the introductory courses on GIS from the ESTP should have been practiced.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: From 8 March to 10 May 2023, FAO's Office of Chief Statistician organized a Webinar Series on Earth observation data for agricultural statistics. The webinar series raised awareness of the EOSTAT project and highlighted FAO's work in building countries' capacity on the use of Earth observation data for the production of agricultural statistics. The EOSTAT webinar series also discussed the main innovations introduced in the field of EO based crop statistics implemented by FAO through R&amp;amp;D and testing in countries in collaboration with the academia.  These include: 1)    Standardization of EO methods to produce annual land cover/use maps 2)    Crop type mapping in the context of in-situ data scarcity 3)    Coupling of EO data with physical based crop yield modelling Moreover, the series shed light on how the innovations brought by the EOSTAT offer a solution to overcome the challenges connected with the collection and predication of crop statistics (acreage and yield) using both traditional field survey-based methods and the EO based methods. Finally, the webinar series provided a platform to enhance collaboration and potentially mobilize resources. The FAO Webinar Series "Earth observation data for agricultural statistics" consisted of six webinar sessions. Simultaneous interpretation was provided in English and Spanish. Session 1 (8 March 2023, 15:30 – 17:00) Recording (Passcode: =Y9v=5WF) Presentation (Pietro Gennari) Presentation (Lorenzo de Simone) EOSTAT project overall presentation Organized jointly with the Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians Speakers: Pietro Gennari, FAO &amp;amp; Lorenzo De Simone, FAO Session 2 (20 March 2023, 15:30 – 17:00) Recording (Passcode: 4L1vtay%) Presentation (Lorenzo de Simone) Presentation (Prof. Bruno Basso) Crop yield mapping and yield statistics Speaker: Lorenzo De Simone Guest:  Prof. Bruno Basso, Michigan State University Session 3 (4 April 2023, 15:30 – 17:00) Recording (Passcode: f*v2Z^!n) Presentation (Sophie Bontemps) Crop type mapping and acreage Speaker: Lorenzo De Simone, FAO Guest: Sophie Bontemps, Université of Louvain Session 4 (13 April 2023, 15:30 – 17:00) Recording (Passcode: A2Y7&amp;amp;&amp;amp;Uu) Presentation (William Ouellette) Standardized land cover classification for land cover statistics Speaker:  Lorenzo De Simone, FAO Guest: William Ouellette, CEO at SoilWatch Session 5 (27 April 2023, 15:30 – 17:00) Recording (Passcode: 4@c#56=D) Presentation (Sophie Bontemps) EO augmented survey design, in-situ data standards, and best practices in georeferencing Speaker: Lorenzo De Simone, FAO Guest: Sophie Bontemps, Université of Louvain Session 6 (10 May 2023, 15:30 – 17:00) Recording(Passcode: kf7Nh?QK) Presentation (Sherrie Wang) Crop field boundaries mapping using machine learning and very high-resolution data Speaker:  Lorenzo De Simone, FAO Guests: Sherrie Wang, MIT Lisa Rebelo, Digital Earth Africa For more information, please visit the FAO-EOSTAT project page.

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Description: The 2023/third session of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) will be convened from 1 to 5 May 2023 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. There will be 10 meetings of the 2023 session and each meeting will be three hours: 10 -1 a.m. and 3-6 p.m. Objectives UNGEGN sessions provide a forum where experts from the interrelated fields of geography, cartography, geospatial information, linguistics and history, from across the world come together to learn and share best practices and norms, new developments in geographical names administration and standardization. The session also highlights the Group's role as an enabler in preserving cultural heritage and where appropriate support relevant aspects of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This session will address the theme "Strengthening relationships, links and connections in geographical names standardization and for sustainable development and pandemic recovery". This theme is not only aligned to the theme of the 2023 ECOSOC High-level Political Forum on sustainable development, but also to UNGEGN's Strategic Plan and Programme of Work 2021-2029, Strategy 2: Relationships, links and connections. Good relationships, links and connections are fundamental to all UNGEGN's strategies and are at the heart of the work of the United Nations. Therefore, it is beneficial to encourage focus on this topic and create a platform through the 2023 session to explore the various types of relationships (formal/informal, organizational/individual) employed by Member States to achieve their goals, and in turn support UNGEGNs vision. Work Programme The Group of Experts has a robust work programme anchored in its Strategic Plan and Programme of Work 2021-2029. The following are some major topics to be addressed during the session: - place names supporting sustainable development, toponymic data management and gazetteers, romanization systems, diversity and inclusion, capacity building in toponymy and geographical names as cultural heritage. Other Activities A series of side events consisting of working groups and divisional meetings, special workshops and an orientation session for new attendees will be held prior to and during the session. We are committed to keeping you, our national representatives, observers and special interest groups informed on the progress of session arrangements. Therefore, we encourage you to continue to monitor this website for updates and announcements.

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Description: The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in its resolution 2022/24 entitled 'Enhancing global geospatial information management arrangements' on 22 July 2022, recognized the sustained efforts of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) to establish the United Nations Global Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Centre (UN-GGKIC) in Deqing, China to provide opportunities to develop and expand global geospatial capacity, competence and capabilities, and to strengthen geospatial information management arrangements in countries, especially developing countries. Further, ECOSOC reiterated "the importance of strengthening and enhancing the effectiveness of the Committee of Experts, particularly for the achievement of its operations focused on the Sustainable Development Goals and the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework, to strengthen and ensure its continued effectiveness and benefits to all Member States." In making decision 12/101 at its twelfth session in August 2022, UN-GGIM noted the progress and efforts to finalize the modalities for the establishment of the UN-GGKIC in Deqing, China, and appreciated the involvement of the International Advisory Committees (IAC) throughout the setup process, and encouraged them to remain engaged and to regularly share progress with UN-GGIM as the Centre's operationalize their activities. The Agreement for the establishment of the UN-GGKIC in Deqing, Zhejiang Province, China and a Memorandum of Understanding on the operationalization of the UN-GGKIC were signed by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and China"s Minister for Natural Resources in a virtual ceremony on 20 May 2022. The overarching goal of the UN-GGKIC is to work towards the ambitions of implementation of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF) set by Member States to develop capacity, promote and support the required innovation, leadership, coordination and standards to develop, strengthen, integrate and deliver national geospatial information policy, data, systems, tools, services and capabilities into their national government development policies, strategies and arrangements. The objective of the UN-GGKIC is to strengthen and advance the geospatial information management capacity development capabilities of Member States, especially developing countries, and to strengthen knowledge sharing and innovative cooperation. The modalities for operationalizing the UN-GGKIC, as provided in the Memorandum of Understanding, include a Framework Plan and the formation of a Steering Committee and an International Advisory Committee. The UN-GGKIC will develop and implement its annual programme of work in accordance with the Framework Plan. The International Advisory Committee (IAC), comprised of international geospatial experts with balanced geographical representation and diversity from UN-GGIM, will provide the required guidance and advice on the development, implementation, and review of the substantive annual programme of work of the UN-GGKIC. The First Meeting, in-person, brings together all members of the UN-GGKIC: IAC at Deqing, China. Over the three days, the UN-GGKIC: IAC is expected to substantively guide and advice the UN-GGKIC in its development of a medium term and annual programme of work in accordance with the agreed Framework Plan.

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Description: The objective of this workshop is training in the use of the United Nations methodology for the development of a national action plan based on the nine strategic pathways of the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF).

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Description: On 4 November 2022, an agreement "On the Operationalization of the United Nations Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence" between the United Nations and the Federal Republic of Germany was signed. The agreement formalizes the offer from Germany to host the United Nations Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence (UN-GGCE) at the UN Campus in Bonn to support the work of enhancing global cooperation and coordination across Member States and relevant geodetic stakeholders, strengthening geodetic infrastructure, as well as supporting Member States in improving their national contributions to the global geodetic infrastructure, as outlined in the Framework Plan of the UN-GGCE annexed to the agreement. UN-GGCE's overarching goal is to assist Member States and geodetic organizations to coordinate and collaborate to sustain, enhance, access and utilize an accurate, accessible and sustainable GGRF to support science, society and global development. The objective is to support, within available resources, the implementation of General Assembly Resolution 69/266 through strengthening and advancing: global geodetic cooperation and coordination; worldwide geodetic infrastructure; standards and policies; education, training and capacity development; and communication and awareness, while also coordinating measures and overseeing their implementation. The UN-GGCE will have a Steering Committee, comprising representatives designated by United Nations and the Federal Republic of Germany. The Steering Committee will provide strategic advice on the annual plan of work and overall implementation of the agreed framework plan. The UN-GGCE will also have an International Advisory Committee (IAC) comprising scientific and operational expertise that will provide the required guidance and advice on the development, implementation and review of the annual plan of work. UN-GGCE is convening the inaugural meetings of its Steering Committee and IAC in conjunction with the Opening Ceremony of the Centre at the UN Campus, Bonn. At its Twelfth Session, in its decision 12/106, the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) noted the Subcommittee on Geodesy desire to convene its Third Plenary Meeting at the UN-GGCE in Bonn once the Centre is established and further urged a greater contribution from relevant technical experts in Member States to the work of the Subcommittee. The last time the Subcommittee met in plenary was in November 2018 on the margins of the inaugural United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress. Whilst the Opening Ceremony and the inaugural meeting of the UN-GGCE Steering Committee will be held on 29 March 2023, the inaugural meeting of the UN-GGCE International Advisory Committee and the Third Plenary Meeting of the Subcommittee on Geodesy will be held from 29 to 31 March 2023. The agendas for the inaugural meeting of the UN-GGCE International Advisory Committee and the Third Plenary Meeting of the Subcommittee will be jointly developed and coordinated to synergistically benefit from the knowledge, expertise and participation of scientific, operational and geospatial information experts during the three days at the UN Campus in Bonn.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: At its Twelfth Session, in its decision 12/106, the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) noted the Subcommittee on Geodesy desire to convene its Third Plenary Meeting at the UN-GGCE in Bonn once the Centre is established and further urged a greater contribution from relevant technical experts in Member States to the work of the Subcommittee. The last time the Subcommittee met in plenary was in November 2018 on the margins of the inaugural United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress. The Third plenary meeting of the Subcommittee on Geodesy (SCoG) was hosted by the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy of Germany (BKG) at the United Nations campus in Bonn from 29 to 31 March 2023. The meeting was attended by 41 participants: 27 representatives from seventeen Member States that are members of the Subcommittee, three representatives from three participating Member States, ten participants from international and regional organizations, geodetic research institutions, and relevant stakeholders. One staff member from the United Nations Secretariat substantively facilitated the plenary meeting. Participants also attended the opening ceremony of the United Nations Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence (UN-GGCE) on 29 March 2023 at 1:00 p.m. Plenary meeting participants were joined by a further seventy plus invited guests at the opening ceremony. It was an impressive gathering, the invited guests came from every continent on planet Earth, except the Arctic and the Antarctic. There was someone from each of the five regional committees of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). There was someone from each of the eight functional groups and the four thematic networks reporting into UN-GGIM. At the Third Plenary Meeting, the SCoG selected two from amongst its members as co-Chairs as well as a new bureau that enjoys geographic diversity. The Meeting decided to close the five working groups and establishes three new working groups, namely, (i) Global Geodesy Needs Assessment, (ii) State of Geodesy Report, and (iii) Capacity and Education.

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Title in Spanish: Serie de seminarios web de la FAO: Datos de observación de la Tierra para estadísticas agrícolas SESIÓN 2: Mapeo de rendimiento de cultivos y estadísticas de rendimiento

Description: El lunes 20 de marzo, nuestro invitado especial, el Dr. Bruno Basso, profesor del Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales y de la Tierra de la Michigan State University, hablará sobre el mapeo del rendimiento de cultivos y las estadísticas de rendimiento. El evento se realizará en inglés con interpretación simultánea a español y podrá seguirse exclusivamente de forma virtual. Enlace de registro: https://fao.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3i2xcYuYS8qGEyKojo2-WA El propósito de esta serie de seminarios web es dar a conocer el proyecto EOSTAT y destacar el trabajo de la FAO en la creación de capacidad de los países en el uso de datos de observación de la Tierra para la producción de estadísticas agrícolas, contribuyendo así a la modernización de los sistemas y protocolos para las estadísticas nacionales. También discutirá las principales innovaciones introducidas en el campo de las estadísticas de cultivos basadas en observaciones de la tierra implementadas por la FAO a través de I+D y pruebas en países en colaboración con la academia. Éstas incluyen: 1) Estandarización de los métodos de observaciones de la tierra para producir mapas anuales de cobertura/uso de la tierra 2) Mapeo de tipos de cultivo en el contexto de escasez de datos in situ 3) Acoplamiento de datos de observaciones de la tierra con modelos físicos de rendimiento de cultivos Además, la serie arrojará luz sobre cómo las innovaciones aportadas por EOSTAT ofrecen una solución para superar los desafíos relacionados con la recopilación y pronóstico de estadísticas de cultivos (superficie en acres y rendimiento) utilizando métodos tradicionales basados ​​en encuestas de campo y métodos basados ​​en observaciones de la tierra. Finalmente, la serie de seminarios web proporcionará una plataforma para mejorar la colaboración y potencialmente movilizar recursos. El lunes 20 de marzo, nuestro invitado especial, el Dr. Bruno Basso, profesor del Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales y de la Tierra de la Michigan State University, hablará sobre el mapeo del rendimiento de cultivos y las estadísticas de rendimiento. El evento se realizará en inglés con interpretación simultánea a español y podrá seguirse exclusivamente de forma virtual. Para obtener más información sobre los seminarios web pasados ​​y próximos planificados, visite la página dedicada aquí. Acerca de nuestro invitado: Bruno Basso es Profesor Distinguido John A. Hannah y Profesor de la Fundación MSU de Ciencias Ambientales y de la Tierra en la Michigan State University. Es científico de agroecosistemas y modelador de sistemas de cultivos con interés en la sostenibilidad a largo plazo de los sistemas agrícolas, agricultura digital, bioeconomía circular. Su investigación se centra en evaluar y modelar la variabilidad espacial y temporal del rendimiento de los cultivos, el carbono orgánico del suelo, las emisiones de GEI, el agua y los flujos de nutrientes en los paisajes agrícolas en los climas actuales y futuros. Posee patentes globales sobre IA, sensores remotos y sistemas de modelos de cultivos para evaluar la productividad de las tierras de cultivo y la sostenibilidad ambiental. Para obtener más información, visite la página del proyecto FAO-EOSTAT y el sitio web de estadísticas de la FAO.

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Title in Spanish: Demostración del uso datos de observación de la tierra en el desarrollo de estadísticas agrícolas “El caso de Ecuador"

Description: Esta demostración tiene como objetivo proveer a los funcionarios gubernamentales responsables de la producción y análisis de información de estadísticas agrícolas, un espacio abierto para la solución de dudas sobre el uso de datos de observación de la tierra en la modernización y producción de estadísticas agrícolas. La FAO con el ánimo de desarrollar capacidad en los países en el uso de datos de observación de la tierra para la producción de estadísticas agrícolas ha venido promoviendo diferentes actividades en las cuales los países son actores fundamentales, este es el caso de Ecuador, quién ha trabajado fuertemente en mejorar y modernizar su sistema estadístico agrícola. En línea con este trabajo, la FAO busca apoyar ahora a más países de la región en el desarrollo y mejoramiento de estas capacidades en países como Chile, Colombia y Perú, y para ello, realizará una demostración de los resultados obtenidos en Ecuador. Expositor: Lorenzo De Simone, PhD.Technical Adviser Geospatial, Office of the Chief Statistician, FAO. Asesor de la FAO sobre el uso de Observaciones de la Tierra para el monitoreo de la Agricultura y los Recursos Naturales. También es experto en ciencia de datos, sistemas de información geográfica y teledetección (PhD), cuenta con conocimiento de geoestadística y ciencia ambiental, desarrollo de TI y gestión de calidad. Grabación (Código de acceso: x.Bh!Sf3)

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Description: During this Joint Global Network and FAO Webinar on Earth Observation Data for Agricultural Statistics Lorenzo De Simone and Pietro Gennari provided us with an overview of the EOSTAT project. This webinar was the first in a Webinar Series on Earth Observation (EO) Data for Agricultural Statistics organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from March to May which will raise awareness of the EOSTAT project and will highlight FAO's work in building countries' capacity on the use of earth observation data for the production of agricultural statistics. The speakers gave some high-level insights of the main innovations introduced in the field of EO-based crop statistics implemented by FAO through R&D and testing in countries in collaboration with the academia, including the 1) Standardization of EO methods to produce annual land cover/use maps; 2) Crop type mapping in the context of in-situ data scarcity; and 3) Coupling of EO data with physical based crop yield modelling. Pietro and Lorenzo gave an overview of how the innovations brought by the EOSTAT offer a solution to overcome the challenges connected with the collection and predication of crop statistics (acreage and yield) using both traditional field survey-based methods and the EO-based methods. They also spoke about how the FAO webinar series will provide a platform to enhance collaboration and potentially mobilize resources.

Course Language: English

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Description: FAO, in collaboration with the Data Strategy, hosted a webinar on Tuesday, 7 March 2023 on the use of Earth Observation data for the production of official agricultural statistics and SDG indicators. Collecting data and predicting real time crop area and yield is difficult and expensive. FAO, through the EOSTAT project, is helping countries in overcoming this challenge and building their technical capacity to consistently collect agricultural statistics through integrated earth observation data, physical modelling, and ground truth data collection. Experts from the UN statistical community discovered how EOSTAT is implemented, and learned more about its innovative aspects with respect to traditional approaches for the production of crop statistics based solely on field surveys and with respect to conventional EO approaches based on statistical relationships with vegetation indexes. Download the presentation here.

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Description: Este es un evento paralelo de la octava sesión de la Plataforma Regional para la Reducción del Riesgo de Desastres en las Américas y el Caribe (PR23), que se llevó a cabo del 28 de febrero al 2 de marzo de 2023 en Punta del Este, Uruguay, contó con el auspicio del Gobierno de la República Oriental del Uruguay.

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Description: Over 50 delegates representing state members of the Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for the Arab States (UN-GGIM: Arab States): Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and State of Palestine, together with a dozen invited observers from the UN system, international and regional organizations met inperson in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 14 – 16 February 2023. Prior to the three-day plenary meeting, a two-day regional workshop on enhancing national geospatial information management, from 12 – 13 February 2023, was convened where about 90 additional participants from the United Arab Emirates joined delegates and observers. The useful and productive two days had good and informative exchanges of views and perspectives, discussed challenges and opportunities in strengthening and enhancing nationally integrated geospatial information management leveraging the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF). The UNGGIM Secretariat substantively facilitated the plenary meeting as well as the regional workshop. At the regional workshop, participants heard efforts by some state members to reference and utilize UN-IGIF as a mechanism to develop and strengthen their institutional arrangements, inter-institutional cooperation, national spatial data infrastructure, and national geospatial strategy. UN-GGIM: Arab States was urged to consider a ‘subregional’ modality to raise awareness on the value and utility of geospatial information within national development frameworks and to develop UN-IGIF country-level Action Plans towards enhancing their national geospatial information management according to their respective national circumstances and priorities. At the tenth plenary meeting, delegates agreed the need to strengthen institutional collaboration and coordination, improve interoperability and integration across national data systems, collectively discussed and agreed to operationalize the UN-IGIF to strengthen geospatial capability and utilization in their countries. The meeting also agreed to continue their ongoing work items on regional geodetic reference frame, the integration of geospatial and statistical information and improved sharing of experiences and practices. The tenth plenary meeting discussed, for the first time, an agenda item on empowering women in the realm of geospatial information management, assisted by a series of presentations by lady delegates from Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The tenth plenary meeting agreed to defer the election for its chair, two vice-chairs and a secretary general by one year, to the eleventh plenary meeting, to be held in February 2023. The tenth plenary meeting and the regional workshop was held in a very comfortable and conducive venue, warmly and cordially hosted by the Federal Geographic Information Centre (FGIC), United Arab Emirates, and very well arranged by FGIC and the secretariat of UN-GGIM: Arab States (General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information, Saudi Arabia).

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Description: This Fourth Expert Meeting of the Working Group allows members of the Working Group together with invited experts to review, discuss and consider its activities and progress to-date; efforts to advance the UN-IGIF and its nine strategic pathways with UN-IGIF-Hydro; and the workplan for the period 2023 - 2024 to enhance the availability and accessibility of marine geospatial information for resilience and sustainable development. The Fourth Expert Meeting will be held in conjunction with the Fourteenth meeting of the Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Working Group of the International Hydrographic Organization and the Annual meeting of the Marine Domain Working Group of the Open Geospatial Consortium. These meetings will be co-located within a week-long programme, with joint agenda items where appropriate, to deliver the objectives and desired outcomes for each of the three working groups. These joint meetings enhance peer-to-peer engagements, interactions, learning and exchange of knowledge, information and experience, promote coordination, collaboration and avoid duplication of efforts. UN-GGIM recognized the need to consider the marine environment, namely, inland waters and waterways, shorelines, coastal waters, seas and oceans, as a key component of any national geospatial information management arrangements essential for the effective administration, management and governance of land and marine spaces, and the national geospatial resources of Member States. At its Seventh Session in August 2017, UN-GGIM established the Working Group on Marine Geospatial Information and endorsed its terms of reference. Marine geospatial information encompasses inland water bodies and waterways, coastal zones, seas and oceans contributes to the availability and accessibility of comprehensive location-based information to support Governments in developing policies, priorities and programmes, make decisions, and measure and monitor progress and outcomes. The Working Group aims to play a leading role in marine geospatial information policies at the global level to support the wellbeing of billions of inhabitants reliant on sustainable inland water bodies and waterways, coastal zones, seas and oceans. The Working Group is to provide a forum for dialogue and coordination among Member States, and between Member States and the International Hydrographic Organization, United Nations system and relevant international organizations to enhance global cooperation, advocate and improve the availability and accessibility of marine geospatial information

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Description: Geospatial information methodologies and technologies are increasingly used for population and housing censuses, from planning and updating cartography, to enumeration, to dissemination of census information, including their visualization by geographic location on thematic/interactive/smart/story maps. The 3-hour course will demonstrate the importance and benefits of the use of geospatial information, and guide the participants, step-by-step, how to choose, appropriate with their national conditions and needs, the best advanced geospatial information technology in support of all stages of a Population & Housing Census process and beyond. All this illustrated by good practices and demos!

Target Audience: Main Target: Census Geographers/Cartographers Others: Census Managers, Statisticians.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: The United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Section, Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, will jointly organize the expert meeting and regional workshop together with the United Nations Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information on the margins of the ninth session of the Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas (UN-GGIM: Americas). The meeting of the Expert Group is a closed meeting, by invitation only, allows members of the Expert Group together with invited experts to review, consider and discuss its progress to-date, follow through on the guidance and decisions of the UN Statistical Commission and UN-GGIM. This meeting will enable the Expert Group to review and deliberate its future direction, including identifying how to advance the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework (GSGF); agree on its next steps to assist Member States in strengthening statistical geospatial integration and coordination towards the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and establish coordination mechanisms to enable Member States to build resilient, agile, relevant, responsive and robust statistical and data systems adhering to the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics that fully integrate geospatial information. The Regional Workshop on Integrating Statistical and Geospatial Information for Sustainable Development with the theme 'The GSGF and Beyond' will provide a forum for deliberating key considerations for the integration of statistical and geospatial information, including promoting and raising awareness of the GSGF and the GSGF Implementation Guide, and examining how the GSGF can be practically operationalised by Member States to strengthen geo-statistical integration. The Regional Workshop seeks to share and exchange knowledge, information and experience; facilitate peer-to-peer engagement and learning; interact and consider guidance, recommendations, standards and approaches towards geo-statistical integration for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and other national priorities and global development agendas

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Description: The 2022 Workshop on Earth Observation for Ecosystem Accounting (EO4EA 2022) is organized by the European Space Agency in collaboration with the Environmental-Economic Account section of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Earth Observations for Ecosystem Accounting initiative of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO EO4EA). The objective of the 2022 Workshop on Earth Observation for Ecosystem Accounting is to bring together experts in Earth Observation and experts in Ecosystem Accounting to jointly discuss the key challenges that need to be addressed in order to use Earth Observation in compiling national ecosystem accounts to support national policies. The Workshop will introduce the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting framework to the EO community, present on-going efforts to harness the potential of Earth Observations in ecosystem accounting, showcase, through open sessions, practical examples of EO applications for Ecosystem Accounting, and review the main challenges lying ahead for an effective use of Earth Observation in compiling national ecosystem accounts. The workshop will address the use of Earth Observation for ecosystem accounts in all realms, from terrestrial, freshwater, coastal to marine ecosystems. The objective of the workshop is to reinforce the importance to join efforts to provide robust and cost-effective EO solutions that help countries develop and compile their ecosystem accounts. This workshop is organized the week prior to the seventh Forum of Experts on SEEA Ecosystem Accounting 2022 held by UNSD. The outcome of the workshop will be presented during the Forum of Experts on SEEA Ecosystem Accounting.

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Description: The Ninth Session of the United Nations Regional Committee for Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas (UN-GGIM: Americas) was held in Santiago, from November 28 to 30, 2022.

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Description: Provide an introduction to cartographic design principles for statistical map design. Introduce basic and advanced cartographic representation methods with practical examples on statistical data. Provide guidelines for creating maps for online publication and for printout.

Target Audience: Statisticians working in the field of Earth observation, geographic information systems and statistics, who would like to gain knowledge and practical skills on using cartographic representation methods to visualize statitiscal data.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: The Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for Africa was established to coordinate African geospatial development and to contribute to the wider global initiative. Over the past decade, the Regional Committee has adopted realistic approaches to ensure that systematic and comprehensive frameworks are put in place, along with related policies, resources and systems to make geospatial information technology easily accessible to decision-makers and the community in a coordinated way. To ensure that appropriate geospatial information products are used in decision-making, the Regional Committee supports its member States in developing a holistic vision that fosters the effective use of geospatial products and resources to address emerging global challenges and support various social and economic sectors in Africa. The roles of the Regional Committee include the following: (a)     Articulating policies and strategies with appropriate guidelines for the establishment of local, national, regional and global spatial data infrastructures and their linkages with other plans and strategies; (b)    Developing capacities and capabilities in a transformative and holistic manner with a long-term vision to increase spatial literacy, spatial awareness and navigational skills; (c)     Maintaining an authoritative data repository (fundamental and thematic), information and knowledge resources, tools, applications and services, with greater use of common standards and interoperability for metadata, naming, coordinate references, etc.; (d)    Encouraging and facilitating the integration of statistics with geospatial information to attain viable and meaningful outcomes, analysis and visualization of data to support and track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals; (e)     Strengthening advocacy for the specific needs and interests of Africa within international mechanisms. Read more

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Description: The Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) will be convening the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) in Hyderabad, India from 10-14 October 2022. Hosted by the Government of India through its Ministry of Science and Technology, the convening of the UNWGIC arises out of the mandate from the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to the Committee of Experts to convene global forums to promote comprehensive dialogue on global geospatial information management with all relevant governments, international organizations and stakeholders. The congress will be a truly global event bringing together all stakeholders at the highest level to address and ensure that geospatial information has its widest and fullest utility in service of sustainable social, economic and environmental development. With an overarching theme "Geo-Enabling the Global Village: No one should be left behind", the second UNWGIC will reflect the importance of integrated geospatial information to support sustainable development and the wellbeing of society, address environmental and climate challenges, embrace digital transformation and technological development, and catalyze vibrant economy. The congress addresses the development and strengthening of integrated geospatial information management, its capacities and capabilities, and demonstrates the importance of international cooperation and coordination for building a human data and geography community, against the three pillars of sustainable development, for a shared future and a better world, leaving no one behind within an inclusive and equitable global society. The UNWGIC will feature a high-level, plenary, special and parallel sessions. While the actual second UNWGIC program covers three days (11 - 13 October), the overall event will be a week long (10 - 14 October), and will include global and regional meetings, workshops and learning events, expert meetings and side events, including the eleventh plenary meeting of the Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for Asia and the Pacific (UN-GGIM-AP), as well as the annual meeting of the UN-GGIM Expanded Bureau.

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Description: Objectives: * An introduction to Earth Observation; * Examples using EO for statistical reporting; * Processing and analyse of EO data; * Practical exercises on receiving EO data; * Advanced analytics; * Reporting statistical values; * Question and Answer Session.

Target Audience: NSIs and Other National Authorities (with lower priority), working in the field of Earth observation, geographic information systems and statistics. Participants are expected to have knowledge of Earth observations and Scripting.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: The twelfth session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) will be held from 3 - 5 August 2022 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. UN-GGIM, comprising experts designated by the Governments of Member States, seeks to promote international cooperation in global geospatial information management and provide a forum for coordination and dialogue among Member States, and between Member States and relevant international organizations. As the relevant inter-governmental body on geospatial information in the United Nations, UN-GGIM reports on all matters relating to geography, geospatial information and related topics to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

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Description: Organized by the UN-GGIM Americas Board of Directors and the CARIGEO Coordinating Committee, with the collaboration of the UN-GGIM Secretariat and the IGIF High Level Group.

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Course Language: English, Spanish

Description: In the next decades, agricultural productivity will need to increase considerably to feed future generations. However, some intensification approaches may have an impact on land degradation, ecosystems, biodiversity, pollution, CO2 emissions and so on. The trade-off between agriculture and environment is a critical issue for policy makers charged with managing both the food supply and the sustainable use of the land. Reliable data are crucial for developing effective policies and for evaluating their impact. Due to technological development, in the last decades, different kinds of geospatial data have become easily accessible at decreasing prices and have started to be an important support to agricultural monitoring. In this talk, we focus on the main methodological aspects behind the use of geospatial technology for agricultural monitoring and for producing reliable and timely agricultural statistics. Particular attention is devoted to the main types of agricultural probability sample surveys based on area sampling frames and corresponding estimation. The use of remote sensing data at the design level (area frame construction and stratification) as well as at the estimator level is also analysed.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: FAO, Digital Earth Africa and the UN Statistics Division are organizing a capacity-building workshop on the methodology for calculating SDG indicators 2.4.1 and 15.4.2 through the integration of statistical and geospatial information. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Digital Earth Africa and the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) are working together to provide capacity building to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) and partners through the UNSD-FCDO project on SDG monitoring. This project aims to increase the availability, timeliness and disaggregation of national SDG data while integrating the use of new and innovative sources, methods and technologies following the Data For Now approach, and leveraging initiatives and innovations from across the global Statistical and Geospatial communities. The Data For Now approach is oriented by a set of guiding principles, principally that the work is driven by the policy priorities and corresponding data needs identified by countries. Through consultations with NISR, SDG indicators 2.4.1 and 15.4.2 were prioritized to be produced for Rwanda using geospatial data sources and methods, with the broader aim of strengthening the use in geospatial information in Rwanda. This development includes determining how to manage relevant geospatial information and identifying suitable methods for the production of SDG indicators, as well as broader considerations of what is necessary for the integration of geospatial data and statistics at the national level. The SDGs Geospatial Roadmap[helps address these items, offering a basis to guide countries and their national institutions to collaborate and realize the immense innovative potential that geospatial information and its associated technologies can bring to the SDGs. The Roadmap aims to be a resource that helps enhance the awareness of geospatial information, Earth observations, and related data sources, products, tools, and methods that support SDG implementation. Developed by the Working Group on Geospatial Information of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on the SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) composed of experts from the global Statistical and Geospatial communities, the Roadmap demonstrates that geospatial information is now recognized and accepted as official data for the SDGs. Within this framework, FAO and DE Africa and UNSD are organizing a capacity-building workshop on the methodology for calculating the selected indicators through the integration of statistical and geospatial information. AGENDA Day 1 13:00 – 13:15 Opening by NISR, RLMUA  All 13:15 – 13:25 Overview of UNSD-FCDO project and Data For Now initiative UNSD 13:25 – 13:40 Overview of DE Africa collaboration in the region DE Africa 13:40 – 13:55 Overview of FAO collaboration FAO 13:55 – 14:00 Stretch Break - 14:00 – 14:15 Introducing the SDGs Geospatial Roadmap (coordination mechanisms) UNSD 14:15 – 14:45 Presentation of available coordination mechanisms for geospatial data integration and opportunities to produce SDG indicators (NISR and RLMUA) Followed by discussion (facilitated by UNSD) How to facilitate better institutional data exchange? What are the needs, opportunities, strengthens and challenges? NISR RLMUA   14:45 – 15:15 Overview of the data and methods needed to produce, measure, monitor and disseminate SDG indicators 15.4.2 and 2.4.1 Availability of global datasets Methodology Management and dissemination FAO  15:15 – 15:20 Stretch Break - 15:20 – 16:30 Calculation of SDG indicators 15.4.2 &amp;amp; 2.4.1 (continued) FAO   Day 2 13:00 – 14:30 Familiarizing with DE Africa tools and resources DE Africa 14:30 – 14:40 Stretch Break 14:40 – 15:30 Computation of SDG 15.4.2 15:30 – 15:40 Stretch Break 15:40 – 16:30 Computation of SDG 15.4.2 (continued)   Day 3 13:00 – 14:00 Computation of SDG 15.4.2 (continued) DE Africa 14:00 – 14:10 Stretch Break 14:10 – 15:00 Computation of SDG 15.4.2 (continued) 15:00 – 15:10 Stretch Break 15:10 – 16:30 Computation of SDG 15.4.2 (continued)   Day 4  13:00 – 13:30 Review of learning &amp;amp; potential application for other indicators (including SDG 2.4.1)  DE Africa 13:30 – 14:30 Discussion of SDG 2.4.1 EO data sources and calculation FAO 14:30 – 14:40 Stretch Break - 14:40 – 15:30 Discussion of SDG 2.4.1 EO data sources and calculation (continued) FAO 15:30 – 15:40 Stretch Break - 15:40 – 16:15 Revisiting the SDGs Geospatial Roadmap and way forward UNSD 16:15 – 16:30 Closing of the workshop All

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Description: To provide the participants with basic understanding on how to produce statistics with the use of geocoded statistical registers and map databases. Emphasis is on the use of Vector data and Vector tools. Each participant will at course start need to choose whether they wish to follow the course in GIS-tools QGIS or ArcGIS Pro.

Target Audience: Target group are persons with little to some practical experience in GIS/ GI/ cartography, which want to make use of GIS in producing statistics or analysis. All exercises will be offered in parallel in two different GIS-tools, QGIS and ArcGIS Pro.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: The United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Section, Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Government of Singapore through the Singapore Land Authority will jointly organize the expert meeting and regional seminar together with the United Nations Expert Group on Land Administration and Management. The Regional Seminar is supported by the Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for Asia and the Pacific (UN-GGIM-AP). The expert meeting of the United Nations Expert Group on Land Administration and Management is a closed meeting, by invitation only, allows members of the Expert Group together with invited experts to review, consider and discuss its progress to-date, follow through on the guidance and decisions of UN-GGIM, and in particular, its ongoing consideration to translate concepts into practical guidance for the implementation of the FELA at the country level. It will also allow the Expert Group to consider, deliberate and address issues and opportunities for inclusive, integrated and effective land administration, facilitates peer-to-peer exchange of information, experience and practices, affords networking whilst attending to the business and activities of the EG-LAM. The Regional Seminar on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management with the theme 'effective land administration' will provide a forum for deliberating key considerations for effective land administration including translating concepts into practical guidance for Member States when implementing the FELA. The Regional Seminar seeks to share and exchange knowledge, information and experience; facilitate peer-to-peer engagement and learning; interact and consider guidance, recommendations, standards and approaches towards effective land administration for the wellbeing of society, environment and economy.

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Description: The UNSD, Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) organized and staged the webinar Developing Digital Gazetteers Using Free and Open-Source Software on Tuesday 10 May 2022. The objective of the webinar was to increase awareness and strengthen capacity within the UNGEGN community, on the use of free and open-source software to develop digital gazetteers. The webinar was also done in support of the implementation of the UNGEGN Strategic Plan and Programme of Work 2021-2029, specifically strategies 1 and 5, which are technical expertise and promotion and capacity building respectively.

Description: The United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Section, Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Government of Singapore through the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore will jointly organize these expert meetings and international seminar together with the United Nations Working Group on Marine Geospatial Information, the Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Working Group of the International Hydrographic Organization and the Marine Domain Working Group of the Open Geospatial Consortium. The third expert meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Marine Geospatial Information is a closed meeting, by invitation only. The in-person meeting allows members of the Working Group together with invited experts to review, consider and discuss its progress to-date, follow through on the guidance and decisions of UN-GGIM at its annual sessions, consider and address new developments, and in particular, its ongoing consideration to develop and consult the draft operational framework for integrated marine geospatial information management (IGIF-H). The meeting also facilitates peer-to-peer engagement and exchange of information, experience and practices, as well as to attend to the business and activities of the WG-MGI. The International Seminar on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management, with the theme "Effective and Integrated Marine Geospatial Information", will provide the forum for deliberating key considerations for integrated marine geospatial information within a data ecosystem for effective policies, decisions, programmes and projects to achieve national development priorities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The International Seminar seeks to share and exchange knowledge, information and experience, facilitate peer-to-peer engagement and learning, interact and consider guidance, recommendations, standards and approaches towards the availability and accessibility of marine geospatial information for a multiplicity of purposes towards the deepest and broadest benefits for society, environment and economy. The International Seminar will include sessions and presentations addressing identified sub-themes, with an agenda that promotes active interactions, sharing and exchanges. The outcomes of the International Seminar will be considered and deliberated by the Working Groups at their meetings.

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Description: We are pleased to announce the official launch of the GIS Centre for Health on 9 May 2022. The launch will take place at WHO Headquarters in Geneva. The event will also be live streamed on the WHO Workplace. Geneva-based colleagues are welcome to join in person at WHO Headquarters. The event will include opening and closing remarks by WHO senior leadership; an introduction to the GIS Centre for Health team; a highlight on partners, collaborators, regional offices and inspirational speakers; a panel discussion; a Q&A session and a GIS hands-on workshop. If you can join us in Geneva please register for the event here: https://indico.un.org/event/37794/ If you would like to join us online on zoom, please register here: https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_V-fQvYE5SsCrJ4f6Yw40YQ

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

Contact: santhanagopalakr@who.int

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Description: The United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) emphasized that the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) now provided an overarching paradigm to further strengthen nationally integrated geospatial information management, not only for Member States that were in the early stages of adopting national spatial data infrastructures but also for those that had already successfully implemented spatial data infrastructure capabilities, and that continuous collaboration would be necessary including with other emerging and complementary geospatial initiatives that extends the IGIF's relevance in the future geospatial information ecosystem. In this regard, the UN-GGIM, at its tenth session, established a dedicated high-level group of experts, with balanced geographical representation and expertise, as a mechanism to provide strategic leadership, coordination and oversight in order to ensure the sustained success of the IGIF, and to mobilize the resources necessary to maintain the momentum and refinement of the IGIF as a continuously evolving process. UN-GGIM, at its eleventh session, endorsed the strategic plan of the HLG-IGIF, including its six defined goals and focus actions, supported three priority goals identified for immediate attention, as an essential step towards the continued success and relevance of the IGIF. UN-GGIM also emphasized the importance of maintaining the impact and continuity of the IGIF at the national level, and that was applicable for all Member States, and noted suggestions from Member States for the HLG-IGIF to consider in its plan of work. This first formal meeting of the HLG-IGIF allows members of the HLG-IGIF, the UN-GGIM Bureau and invited experts to engage, interact and work with one another to review, consider and discuss challenges, progress to-date and accomplishments, consider, develop and plan for the work ahead noting the global importance of the IGIF for strengthening national geospatial information management towards implementing national development priorities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The plenary meeting will also consider views, suggestions and guidance of Member States and facilitate ongoing consideration to translate concepts into practical guidance for the implementation of the IGIF at the country level.

Course Language: English

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Description: Spatial data science is concerned with analyzing the spatial distributions, patterns, and relationships of data over a predefined geographical region. It relies on the dependence of observations where the primary assumption is that nearby spatial values are associated in a certain way. For decades, the size of most spatial datasets was modest enough to be handled by exact inference. Nowadays, with the explosive increase of data volumes, High-Performance Computing (HPC) has become a popular tool for many spatial applications to handle massive datasets. Big data processing becomes feasible with the availability of parallel processing hardware systems such as shared and distributed memory, multiprocessors and GPU accelerators. In spatial statistics, parallel and distributed computing can alleviate the computational and memory restrictions in large-scale Gaussian random process inference. In this course, we will first briefly cover the motivation, history, and recent developments of statistical methods so that the students can have a general overview of spatial statistics. Then, the cutting-edge HPC techniques and their application in solving large-scale spatial problems with the new software ExaGeoStat will be presented.

Target Audience: Statisticians with interests in High-Performance Computing and large-scale Spatial Statistics.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: Introduction to geographic information systems, geospatial standards, and the spatial data infrastructure in Europe. Presenting the role of geospatial information in the statistical production process and statistical data dissemination. Hands-on experience with GIS tools and thematic mapping.

Target Audience: Statisticians involved in the production and analysis of statistical data, who would like to gain knowledge and develop skills in geocoding of data, data integration based on location, spatial analysis, and presentation of statistics on maps.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: Illustrate the geographic perspective and the use of GIS tools in the identification of YF human cases’ location and spatial patterns, as well as their relationship with geo-environmental factors. This, in order to detect, characterize and adjust the limits of other risk areas of epidemiological concern in the Americas.

Contact: gissupport@who.int

Title in Arabic: نظم المعلومات الجغرافية "QGIS -Beginner Level"

Description: يساعد جمع البيانات الإحصائية وتفسيرها وتحليلها ونشرها كثيرا على فهم الأوضاع الحالية في مختلف المجالات وحسن اتخاذ القرار الملائم من طرف المؤسسات وغيرها من الجهات وذلك من أجل تنمية مستدامة تسعى لخدمة الإنسان والبيئة التي يعيش فيها. ومع ذلك، لا يمكن الفصل بين البيانات الإحصائية والبعد المكاني لمختلف الظواهر ذات الصلة. إن معرفة العلاقة التي تربط بين هذه الظواهر وبعدها المكاني سيساعد على فهم أكثر لتأثيرات هذه الظواهر على الإنسان والبيئة. هذا، إلى جانب البعد المكاني، يعتبر البعد الزماني ذو أهمية كبيرة في مزيد فهم اتجاهات هذه الظواهر سواء كانت فيزيائية أو اقتصادية أو اجتماعية، وهي مستعملة كثيرا في مؤشرات التنمية المستدامة للأمم المتحدة وتعطي صورة أكثر قراءة للتطور الزمني لمختلف هذه المؤشرات.

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Description: This session corresponds to Panel 2 of the agenda of the fifth meeting of the Forum of Latin American and Caribbean Countries on Sustainable Development, which was held in person in San José, from March 7 to 9, 2022, under the chairmanship of Costa Rica.

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Title in Spanish: Simposio SIRGAS 2021

Description: Entre los días 29 de noviembre al 01 de diciembre de 2021 tendrá lugar una nueva edición del Simposio SIRGAS. El propósito central del Simposio SIRGAS 2021 es convocar a la comunidad geodésica de las Américas y del Caribe para intercambiar experiencias y avances, así como formular nuevos proyectos relacionados con la implementación, mantenimiento y aprovechamiento de la infraestructura geodésica de referencia de la región.

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Description: I. Introduction and background The UN-GGIM: Africa initiative was established to coordinate African geospatial development and to contribute to the broader global effort. UN-GGIM: Africa has made significant strides in regaining momentum and demonstrating to the national and international communities that it is committed to contribute towards national and international agendas. To pursue a robust advocacy campaign directed at African policymakers and to bolster the effort to transform geospatial information into a true enabler of sustainable development, the Executive Board scheduled the Seventh Meeting of the Regional Committee of UN-GGIM: Africa concurrently with the AfricaGIS 2021 Conference, and this meeting took place in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, from 22–26 November 2021.   II. Objectives The meeting's primary objective was to assess progress in implementing recommendations from past UN-GGIM: Africa meetings. The meeting provided another opportunity to exchange knowledge and best practices regarding the development of geospatial information on the continent; raised awareness about the benefits of geospatial information for sustainable development; examined policies and measures that African countries could take in order to ensure the successful implementation of the UN-GGIM initiative in the region within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conclusions of the meeting aided in consolidating agreed consensus as well as galvanizing political will for harnessing geospatial information technology to further African development goals while assisting efforts to address certain growing global concerns.

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Description: The webinar, organized by the FAO Land and Water Division, will launch the second phase of the WaPOR project. The FAO Land and Water Division invites you to the webinar "From satellites to fields. Innovations supporting farmers" organized on 22 November 2021, from 12.30 to 14.00 (Central European Time, CET) where the second phase of the WaPOR project will be officially launched.  The second phase of the project started in January 2021 and is funded for 5 years by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It follows a first phase which has seen the effective development of the FAO portal on Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR) that provides key data on water and vegetation dynamics in support of the monitoring and the reporting of SDGs and climate action. WaPOR 2 focuses on the direct demands of both policy makers and farmers, including smallholders, to solve practical problems and increase land and water productivity. The project has started engaging stakeholders in partner countries to identify and develop, in collaborative ways, innovative solutions and tools tailored to local needs. An emphasis on capacity development, with focus on digital skills, will further promote youth active participation and inclusion in the sector. With information freely available for over 10 years, this new phase seeks to answer FAO member's demand for practical applications at different scales and locally relevant solutions to monitor and effectively improve agricultural land and water productivity.  This webinar will reflect on the results of the first phase of WaPOR and present the objectives and focuses proposed for the second phase. As WaPOR is already used within and outside FAO for a growing range of applications and domains this webinar will also showcase its contribution to the FAO Hand-in-Hand initiative and Multi-Disciplinary Fund, as well as its usefulness for the private sector through existing cooperation. The event will be held in English with interpretation in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.  REGISTER HERE     Agenda:     Co-chairs: H.E. Mr Marcel Beukeboom, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to FAO Mr. Lifeng Li, Director, Land and Water Division, FAO Moderator: Ms Sasha Koo-Oshima,  Deputy Director, Land and Water Division, FAO  12.30 - 12.35  Opening address, Mr. Lifeng Li 12.35 - 12.45  Opening address, H.E Mr. Marcel Beukeboom 12.45 - 12.50   Presentation of the results of WaPOR phase 1 and planning of WaPOR phase 2, Mr. Jippe Hoogeveen, Senior Water Officer and WaPOR Chief Technical Adviser, Land and Water Division, FAO 12.50 - 13.00  Presentation of the preliminary outcomes of the FAO Multi-Disciplinary Fund project on "Improving land and water productivity in the Sudano-Sahelian Belt", Mr. Aymar Bossa, Associate Expert at the Regional Hydro-Climatic Service Center, Burkina Faso  13.00 - 13.10  Presentation of the WaPOR contribution to the Hand-in-Hand initiative, Mr. Karl Morteo, Information Technology Officer, Information Technology Services Division, FAO  13.10 - 13.20   Presentation of the cooperation with the private sector for WaPOR data collection and its use for natural resources and climate monitoring, Ms. Annemarie Klaasse, Project Manager, eLEAF  13.20 - 13.35  Remarks by FAO representatives of Jordan, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Sudan  13.35 - 13.55  Q&amp;amp;A session 13.55 - 14.00  Closing remarks, Mr. Lifeng Li

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Description: Learn in 2 hours about the UN Geospatial Network, Integrated Geospatial Information Framework, Young Professionals in Geospatial, and Geospatial Technology for SDGs. WHEN : 17 November 2021 (09:00 – 11:00 AM New York time) AGENDA INTRODUCTION  (GOVERNANCE) 20mn What is the UN Geospatial Network? From Blueprint and Landscape, through jobs for People, and Geospatial for Humanity and Geospatial in Action [Alexandre Caldas, Chair of the Network/Director, Big Data Branch, Science Division, UNEP] The Integrated Geospatial Information Framework: Strengthening national geospatial information management  [Mark Iliffe, UN-GGIM Secretariat, UN Statistics Division] YOUNG PROFESSIONALS IN GEOSPATIAL (PEOPLE) 45mn Video recording WHO [ADG, tbc] Video recording UNICEF [Mark Hereward, Chief Data Officer, UNICEF] Introducing the publication “Geospatial for Humanity” [Ravi Shankar Krishnan, Geospatial Lead, WHO] Moderated session [Moderator: Doug Muchoney, Vice Chair of the UN Geospatial Network/Head Geospatial Unit, FAO] Ece Gultan, FAO Emergency Response Climate and Youth Change Makers Douglas Ragan, Climate Changemakers UN Habitat UBEP and Canadian University Mahmudul A Hasan, UNICEF [Cox Bazaar] Miroslav Polzer Executive Director of IAAI, chairperson GloCha Fdt. NY, EU team lead CCC GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY FOR SDGs (TECHNOLOGY) 45mn Opening remark on “The importance of Geospatial information for Information and Communication Technology” [Mario Maniewicz, Director Radiocommunication Bureau, ITU] Video message by UN Statistics Division [Stefan Schweinfest, Secretariat UN-GGIM / Director, UN Statistics Division] Remark by UN Technology Service [Erzen Ilijazi, Secretariat UN-GGIM / Director, Technology Operational Service, Office of Information and Communications Technology, United Nations ] Introducing the publication “Geospatial In Action” [ Guillaume Le Sourd, UN-GGIM Secretariat, UN Geospatial Information Section] Moderated session [Moderator: Einar Bjørgo UNOSAT-UNITAR, Vice Chair of the UN Geospatial Network] Rohini Sampoornam, Women in Geospatial+ Carmelle Terborgh, Esri Lara Prades, World Food Programme CLOSING 10mn [Chair of the Network] Recent publications in Geospatial across UN system: UN-GGIM (2020) The Integrated Geospatial Information Framework: Strengthening national geospatial information management  UN-GGIM (2021) The Global Statistical and Geospatial Framework  UN Geospatial Network (2020) The Blueprint, an inter-agency strategy on geospatial information  UN Geospatial Network (2020) The Blueprint Landscape, the Geospatial Landscape in the UN System  UN Geospatial Network (2021) Geospatial In Action: Data and Insights for the Sustainable Development Goals  UN Geospatial Network (2021) Geospatial for Humanity: Prevention, Response and Recovery of the World from COVID-19 Pandemic  UN Geospatial Information Section (2020) Mapping for A Sustainable World   UN Geospatial Information Section (2021) Geospatial strategy for the United Nations (Secretariat | OICT)  Click here to join the meeting

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Description: The Eighth Session of the United Nations Regional Committee on Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas (UNGGIM: Americas) was held virtually, from November 16 to 19 November, 2021.

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Title in Spanish: Fomento de la participación efectiva en UN-GGIM y otras reuniones

Description: Segundo evento paralelo en el marco de la octava sesión de UN-GGIM: AMÉRICAS.

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Title in Spanish: Los beneficios socioeconómicos de la información geoespacial

Description: Primer evento paralelo en el marco de la octava sesión de UN-GGIM: AMÉRICAS.

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Description: FAO launches the FRA 2020 Remote Sensing Survey findings at the COP26 side event "Forest ecosystems trends and innovation: satellite observation, simulations, and fire fighting". First results of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Remote Sensing Survey at COP26 Date: 8 November 2021 Time: from 18:30 to 19:30 (CET)   Modality: hybrid, virtual + EU Pavilion at the COP26 in Glasgow (Scottish Event Campus, Exhibition Way, Glasgow G3 8YW)  WATCH THE LIVESTREAM Registration for virtual participants Join the virtual launch of the first results of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 (FRA) Remote Sensing Survey (RSS) on 8 November from 18:30 to 19:30 (CET) during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.  The FRA 2020 RSS findings will be presented during the side event "Forest ecosystems trends and innovation: satellite observation, simulations, and fire fighting", at the Pavilion of the European Union (Scottish Event Campus, Exhibition Way, Glasgow G3 8YW). The full FRA RSS report will be released at the XV World Forestry Congress in South Korea, May 2022. Register here to join the event. Read more on FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) Remote Sensing Survey.  About the event Forest ecosystems have considerable value and are central in developing solutions to mitigating and adapting to climate change. The FRA 2020 RSS and the forest model FORMIND offer detailed analysis of changes in the last 18 years, current state, and future potentials of forests, while FOIL-CILIFO assesses financial tools and good practices in the framework of climate change and fire fighting for the next decade. The event consists of high-level remarks, presentations of findings, and a Q&amp;amp;A session discussion featuring: •Mr Friedrich J. Bohn, UFZ (Moderator) •Ms Tiina Vahanen, Deputy Director, Forestry Division FAO  •Mr Adolfo Kindgard, FAO, Global Forest Resources Assessment Remote Sensing   •Mr Juan Manuel Revuelta, Finnova •Mr José Antonio Valbuena Alonso, Canary Islands Government Event partners •Helmholtz Climate Initiative: https://www.helmholtz-klima.de/en    •Fundación Finnova: https://finnova.eu  •StartUp Europe Awards: https://startupeuropeawards.eu/seua/    •CILIFO: https://cilifo.eu/    •Firefighting Open Innovation Lab: https://innovation.cilifo.eu/

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Description: In its report to the Eleventh session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) in August 2021, the Working Group on Marine Geospatial Information informed the Committee of a webinar series hosted by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and jointly organized with the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the Working Group in conjunction with the official launch of the IHO-Singapore Innovation and Technology Laboratory. UN-GGIM noted the planned webinar series on integrated marine geospatial information as precursor activities for the third expert meeting of the Working Group, expected to be convened in April 2022, in Singapore together with an international seminar. This webinar series will provide a forum for dialogue and engagement to address effective and integrated marine geospatial information, its challenges and opportunities. The value proposition for developing, managing and sustaining nationally integrated geospatial information management arrangement that includes the marine domain is extensive. It includes everything from transportation and shipping to basic human needs like clean drinking water. The value of the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) and inclusion of the marine domain in any national integrated geospatial information program include: nautical charting, safety of navigation and transportation; maritime resource planning and management; maritime limits and boundaries; subsistence and food security; disaster risk management and emergency response; integrated marine cadastre; sustainable energy; environmental management and protection; climate change; and science, research and knowledge. It is important to promote and to advise on practical considerations regarding the inclusion of the marine domain across an entire geospatial ecosystem.

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Description: To provide the participants with basic understanding on how to produce statistics with the use of geocoded statistical registers and map databases. Emphasis is on the use of Vector data and Vector tools, also getting to know and use the GIS-tool ArcGIS Pro.

Target Audience: Target group are persons with little to some practical experience in GIS/ GI/ cartography, which want to make use of GIS in producing statistics or analysis, using the GIS-tool ArcGIS Pro. Please note: All ESTP Courses are exclusively available to staff members of a European Statistical System (ESS) institution.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: Organized by the Government of Lesotho, in patnership with FAO, this workshop will discuss the production of Lesotho National Land Cover annual maps and the extraction of land cover statistics. The course is intended for technical experts interested in developing or strengthening their GIS analysis and mapping skills as well as data science skills. The Government of Lesotho, through the ReNOKA movement, is organizing a Land Cover Mapping national workshop under the framework of the Integrated Catchment Management Programme. Land cover data is the foundation information to sustainable resources management and agricultural development. An accurate, high-resolution and up-to-date land cover product serves as the basis to model soil erosion, vegetation productivity (cropland and grassland), hydrological processes and carbon sequestration. The advent of freely accessible and multi-temporal Earth Observation (EO) data, namely the Sentinel satellites, unlock the potential of frequent and accurate land cover map production. This workshop aims to train participants in using a state-of-the-art land cover methodolgy developed by FAO and IT tools to produce yearly land cover maps. A few practical examples of how the produced land cover data can be used to support sustainable land management will also be demonstrated. Objective of the training is to build capacity in technical experts in:1) Producing annual national land cover maps using FAO’s newly developed methodology 20202) Extracting statistics from the land cover map at national and subnational level3) Sharing geospatial products and statistics using web gis technology The workshop will consist of 4 modules held over 5 days: Module I: Land Cover Mapping Recap and Principles In this module trainees will be provided with a review of the land cover mapping principle which will allow them to gain a full picture of the concepts and typical workflow, Commonly used satellite image products and tools will be introduced to the audience Module II: Field Survey Design for Reference Data Collection The in-situ component will be addressed. The importance of the survey design for the scope of land cover mapping will be highlighted. GIS and statistical methods for optimal survey design will be explored as well as best practices in georeferencing data in the field A hands on exercise will be held outdoor in the surroundings of the workshop site to gather in-situ data using GPS, followed by migration of GPS data in GIS and QA-QC excercise Module III: Land Cover Map Production with Google Earth Engine In this module, hands-on exercise will be carried out to guide the trainees through the entire process of producing a national land cover map for Lesotho. Google Earth Engine will be used. The main steps will include: Connecting to EO data (Sentinel2 data) Pre-processing the data into Analysis Ready Data Uploading in-situ data Defining land cover classes Training a classification algorithm (random forest). Producing and visualizing the land cover map Assessing accuracy of map Exporting map in gis format outside of Google Earth Engine Module IV: Explore the Land Cover Product(s) and Extract Statistics Statistics This module will be dedicated to extracting statistics from the land cover map at national and subnational level using common GIS desktop software (free and open source) such as QGIS To sign up for the training, please follow this link.

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Description: This course is based on the World Bank’s “Strengthening Geospatial Information Management: Using the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF)”. This course builds on work to e-package global learning and innovation for leveraging sustainable development and contribute to socio-economic improvements. It will include the efforts of governments, the private sector and academia to address: Governance, Technology, People and Benefits.

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Description: This course is based on the World Bank’s “Strengthening Geospatial Information Management: Using the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework”. This course introduces the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF), which guides countries to strengthen their arrangements in geospatial information management.

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Description: Providing knowledge and basic practice on use of earth observation data to produce statistics, EO data sets, processing analyses and presenting.

Target Audience: NSIs and Other National Authorities (with lower priority), working in the field of Earth observation, geographic information systems and statistics. ESTP Trainings are open to non-ESS members if capacity allows after ESS needs are fulfilled.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: Cambridge Conference in Conversation: Applying Geospatial Information to Climate Challenges is an invitation-only opportunity to participate in a conversation with other senior leaders from mapping and geospatial organisations around the world. The event will discuss the vital role of national geospatial agencies in supporting climate change and sustainability action, highlighting best practice examples from across the globe where location data is delivering positive impacts in achieving net zero with a focus on technology, society, prevention, and offsetting. As the UK is hosting COP26 - this year’s UN Climate Change Conference – the event will focus on how our geospatial organisations can contribute to our countries climate change agendas and demonstrate the role that geospatial information plays in tackling the challenges of a changing climate.

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Description: The United Nations Economic and Social Council at its 8th plenary meeting on 8 June 2021 noted the constraints related to the continuing impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the working arrangements of the Council and sessions of its subsidiary bodies. With its Decision 2021/233, decided to reschedule the holding of the eleventh session of the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management, which shall be held in a scaled-down format using a virtual remote simultaneous interpretation platform, on 23, 24 and 27 August 2021, and that decisions of the Committee shall be adopted through a silence procedure.

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Title in Arabic: رسم خرائط الطائرات بدون طيار ونظام المعلومات الجغرافية والذكاء الاصطناعي

Description: أصبحت خرائط الطائرات بدون طيار "أداة" قوية لإنشاء خرائط ثنائية الأبعاد ونماذج ثلاثية الأبعاد يمكن استخدامها في أنواع مختلفة من التطبيقات من الزراعة ورسم الخرائط والطاقة والبناء وحتى الاستجابة للطوارئ. ويتيح دمج خرائط الطائرات بدون طيار التي تعمل بالذكاء الاصطناعي مع نظام المعلومات الجغرافية (GIS) وأجهزة الاستشعار الحصول على بيانات ومعلومات تمكن من إجراء تحليلات وتنبؤات أكثر دقة واتخاذ قرارات أفضل. وتهدف هذه الورشة التدريبية الى تمكين المشاركين من التعرف على متطلبات تقنيات رسم خرائط بالطائرات بدون طيار وكيفية انجاز العمل الميداني بهذه التقنية، بالإضافة الى كيفية دمج المعلومات المتحصل عليها مع ما تتيحة وأنظمة المعلومات الجغرافية والاستشعار عن بعد وتوفير بيانات احصائية تساعد على التحليل واتخاذ القرارات المبنية على الادلة وخاصة في إطار اهداف التنمية المستدامة. وفي ما يلي تقديم أكثر للورشة باللغة الإنجليزية نظرا لصعوبة ترجمة بعض المصطلحات ولمزيد فهم المطلوب في هذا المجال الجديد

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Description: Spatial data science is concerned with analyzing the spatial distributions, patterns, and relationships of data over a predefined geographical region. It relies on the dependence of observations where the primary assumption is that nearby spatial values are associated in a certain way. For decades, the size of most spatial datasets was modest enough to be handled by exact inference. Nowadays, with the explosive increase of data volumes, High-Performance Computing (HPC) has become a popular tool for many spatial applications to handle massive datasets. Big data processing becomes feasible with the availability of parallel processing hardware systems such as shared and distributed memory, multiprocessors and GPU accelerators. In spatial statistics, parallel and distributed computing can alleviate the computational and memory restrictions in large-scale Gaussian random process inference. In this course, we will first briefly cover the motivation, history, and recent developments of statistical methods so that the students can have a general overview of spatial statistics. Then, the cutting-edge HPC techniques and their application in solving large-scale spatial problems with the new software ExaGeoStat will be presented.

Target Audience: Statisticians with interests in High-Performance Computing and large-scale Spatial Statistics.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: The 2021/second session of the 'new' United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) will be convened from 3 to 7 May 2021 on a virtual platform.

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Description: Present the basics of scripting and programming in GIS and their benefits in ETL processes and automation; Enable participants to employ scripting and programming in their daily work for GIS tasks.

Target Audience: NSIs and Other National Authorities (with lower priority), working in the field of statistics and intending to script processes in the domain of GI. Participants are expected to have knowledge of QGIS and spatial analysis. This course is not a beginner GIS course - The knowledge from the introductory courses on GIS from the ESTP should have been practiced. ESTP Trainings are open to non-ESS members if capacity allows after ESS needs are fulfilled.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: Explore how GIS is enhancing response efforts and building the resilience needed to address the challenges of climate, crises and peace.

Target Audience: Global health community, tech-private sector

Course Language: English

Contact: santhanagopalakr@who.int

Description: At its tenth session the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), in making Decision 10/103, "welcomed the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) as a means to strengthen national geospatial information management arrangements within and across Member States and noted the global significance of the IGIF, which can be applied to any country to guide transformational change". The IGIF provides a basis, a reference and a mechanism for countries when establishing or strengthening their national geospatial information management arrangements and related infrastructures, or to coordinate activities to achieve alignment between and across existing national capabilities and infrastructures. Also at the tenth session, UN-GGIM in making Decision 10/110, encouraged the Working Group on Policy and Legal Frameworks on Geospatial Information Management to work with candidate Member States in the implementation of Strategic Pathway 2: Policy and Legal of the IGIF, to consider appropriate mechanisms to promote data sharing and exchange and to improve the availability, accessibility and usability of geospatial information. The Secretariat and the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy together with the Working Group embarked on an initiative to prepare and develop legal instruments (contract, policy, legislation) as resources that Member States can consider, adapt and tailor to their national (or sub-national) circumstances when implementing the IGIF to: i. promote data sharing and exchange; and ii. improve the availability, accessibility and usability of geospatial information.

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Description: To provide the participants with basic understanding on how to produce statistics with the use of geocoded statistical registers and map databases. Emphasis is on the use of Vector data and Vector tools, also getting to know and use the GIS-tool ArcGIS Pro.

Target Audience: Target group are persons with little to some practical experience in GIS/ GI/ cartography, and which want to make use of GIS in producing statistics or analysis, using the ArcGIS Pro. ESTP Trainings are open to non-ESS members if capacity allows after ESS needs are fulfilled.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

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Description: This is a side-event of Twentieth meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC, organized by UN-GGIM: Américas.

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Description: This is a side-event of Twentieth meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC, organized by INEGI of Mexico.

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Description: At this online seminar, Florina Pirlea, Statistician and Divyanshi Wadhwa, Junior Data Scientist, World Bank’s Development Data Group, will present the main features of the 2020 Atlas.

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Description: The objectives of this course are: * The course will introduce the theoretical and practical knowledge of geospatial information and its use for statistics, including for statistical maps. * The main focus will be on integrating statistical and geospatial data for analysis and visualisation. * Understand the potential of spatial analysis. * Additionally participants will learn the techniques and (online) tools for creating and publishing statistical maps. * Gain hands-on experience with GIS and map making.

Target Audience: * Statisticians involved in the production and analysis of statistical data. * Who want to learn how to geo-enable and present statistical maps. * Who want to learn basic principles of spatial analysis using statistical data and an Open Source GIS software (QGIS). ESTP Trainings are open to non-ESS members if capacity allows after ESS needs are fulfilled.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

Description: The regional workshop is jointly organised by United Nations Regional Committee on Global Geospatial Information Management for the Americas (UN-GGIM: Americas) and ECLAC

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Description: About the session Earth Observation (EO) data constitute an invaluable resource for complementing traditional data sources for official statistics in support of the 2030 Agenda and more countries are integrating EO data into the production of official statistics. This session highlighted country examples from Asia-Pacific in producing environment-related official statistics using Earth Observation data. Presentations focused on methodologies, SEEA and SDG indicators, data sharing and collaboration across institutions, and the opportunities presented by Open Data Cubes for official statistics. In addition, ESCAP launched the Guideline on Land Cover Statistics using satellite data. Agenda: Welcome: Rikke Munk Hansen, Chief of the Economic and Environment Statistics Section, UNESCAP Launch of the Guide on Producing land cover change maps and statistics Compiling Ocean Account using Earth Observation data in Viet Nam: Viet Anh Hoang Open Data Cube at the service of the statistics community in the Pacific: Stuart Minchin Use of satellite data for official statistics: Gemma van Halderen Questions and answers: Rikke Munk Hansen Speakers: Viet Anh Hoang is a Researcher at the Research Institute of Forest Ecology and Environment, Viet Nam Academy of Forest Science with over 20 years of experience in forestry and GIS research Stuart Minchin is the Director-General of the Pacific Community (SPC) and previously served as Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division of Geoscience Australia Gemma van Halderen in the Director of Statistics Division, ESCAP --------------------- >> See others Asia-Pacific Stats Café series

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Description: The tenth session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) will be held in a scaled down virtual format, consisting of three two-hour meetings, on 26-27 August and 4 September 2020. On 26-27 August, the meetings will be convened from 10:00am to 12:00pm EDT in New York. Exact timing for the 4 September meeting is still being finalized. This decision was taken in light of the continued and ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the working arrangements for the 2020 sessions of the Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) subsidiary bodies, and a letter from the Co-Chairs of the Committee of Experts to the President of ECOSOC dated 27 May 2020. The decision recognizes that the convening of the tenth session virtually at the end of August will allow sufficient time for written submissions and informal consultations on the technical reports to be initiated in a timely and acceptable manner. Although with a revised format, the tenth session of the Committee of Experts will address several emerging and critical issues and future trends related to the role and contribution of integrated geospatial information management within national, regional and global settings. Numerous substantive activities have been undertaken and completed since the ninth session. These include progress on: the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework; the Future Trends in Geospatial Information Management; a Framework for Effective Land Administration; strengthening geospatial information management; the sustainability and quality of the global geodetic reference frame; how geospatial information supports and informs the sustainable development goals; and progress and activities of the Committee's Experts and Working Groups, among others. The substantive technical reports, background documents, and supporting organizational documents for the tenth session are all available on the session website. The procedural, logistical and technological arrangements for the virtual session are also being provided as they become available. This includes the modalities and process for submission of written statements for each of the technical reports.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: This is a side-event of Nineteenth meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC. Organized by INEGI of Mexico.

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Description: This webinar attempts to convene national representatives from diverse sectors that contribute in the geospatial response to disasters – national geospatial agencies, national statistics offices, risk and disaster management organizations, and many other representatives from the public, academic and private sectors related to the topic.

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Description: This Stats Café featured: Analysis of land cover change for sustainable development Land cover change automation Q&A and panel discussion Moderator Rikke Munk Hansen is the Chief of Economic and Environment Statistics at ESCAP and has worked with statistics and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific for more than 20 years. Presenters Chitrini Mozumder is Affiliated Faculty and Research Scientist at Asian Institute of Technology with research interests including remote sensing and GIS applications in environmental monitoring and management, land use change analysis and modelling, spatial analysis and decision support. Aahlaad Musunuru is working as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialist in ESCAP-Statistics with skills and research interest in remote sensing and GIS applications for monitoring land cover change, ocean accounts and disaster risk assessment. --------------------- >> See others Asia-Pacific Stats Café series

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Title in Arabic: نظم المعلومات الجغرافية والصور الفضائية

Description: إن توفر البيانات الإحصائية في القطاع الزراعي يعتبر عاملا أساسيا للنهوض وتنمية هذا القطاع ولا يمكن وضع سياسات تنموية زراعية فعالة بدون معرفة الوضع الحقيقي للقطاع الزراعي من معلومات مفيدة تساعد على حسن اتخاذ القرار ووضع استراتيجيات على المدى القريب والبعيد من أجل تحقيق الأمن الغذائي بعناصره الأربعة من إتاحة ووصول واستعمال واستقرار الغذاء. على سبيل المثال، المتابعة الموسمية للمحاصيل الزراعية تبين لنا الحالة الصحية لهذه المحاصيل مكانيا وكذلك تطور انتاجيتها عبر الزمن مما سيساهم في وضع سياسة لتحسين إنتاجية المحاصيل ووضع هدف للوصول إلى مستوى معين من الإنتاج وخطة عمل حسب الظروف البيئية المحيطة بدائرة الإنتاج. في الكثير من الأحيان، تبقى المعطيات والبيانات الإحصائية في المجال الزراعي من ناحية في شكل جداول تكون نتائجها على نطاق محلي إداري أو وطني وتفتقد إلى البعد المكاني الجغرافي الدقيق ومن ناحية أخرى، تبقى المتابعة الموسمية مقتصرة على زيارات ميدانية قليلة من حيث العدد بالرغم من أهميتها نظرا لكلفتها الباهظة وتفتقد إلى المتابعة الزمنية الدورية الدقيقة خلال الموسم الزراعي. هذا إلى جانب الإشكال المطروح بين الإحصاءات الرسمية وماهوا حقيقة ما تم حصاده من محاصيل تكون في الغالب بعيدة على الأرقام الصحيحة لوجود إشكاليات في تقدير المساحات المزروعة أو في تقدير إنتاجية المحاصيل. لمساعدة أهل الاختصاص في تقدير سواء المساحات المزروعة أو الإنتاجية أو تقدير الثروة الحيوانية أو الغابات أو درجات الجفاف وتأثيره على منظومة الإنتاج أو حالة تدهور الأراضي أو حسن إدارة الموارد المائية خاصة في المناطق المروية أو لوضع برنامج لتحسين الإنتاجية الزراعية في المناطق المطرية فإن حسن استعمال تقانات نظم المعلومات الجغرافية والاستشعار عن بعد من صور فضائية وجوية وأجهزة استشعارية حقلية يساهم في فهم أكثر لمنظومة الإنتاج وحسن اتخاذ القرار ووضع السياسات الموضوعية لتحسين واستقرار هذه المنظومة.

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Description: The objective of the course is: to provide the participants with basic understanding on how to produce statistics with the use of geocoded statistical registers and map databases. Emphasis is on the use of Vector data and Vector tools, also getting to know and use the GIS-tool ArcMap.

Target Audience: Target group are persons with little to some practical experience in GIS/ GI/ cartography, and which want to make use of GIS in producing statistics or analysis, using the GIS-tool ArcMap. ESTP Trainings are open to non-ESS members if capacity allows after ESS needs are fulfilled.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

Description: This series of three virtual high-level forum events are scheduled at weekly intervals each lasting up to three hours on 26 May, 2 June and 9 June 2020 11:00 hrs (UTC - Coordinated Universal Time)

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: Webex platform. Facilitated by ECLAC and UN-GGIM: Americas

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Description: Geospatial information provides the digital connection between a place, its people and their activities, and is used to illustrate what is happening - where, how and why. It is also used to model and portray the impact of the past, the present and likely future scenarios. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its seventeen goals are highly dependent on geospatial information and enabling technologies as the primary data and tools for relating people to their place, and to measure 'where' progress is, or is not, being made, particularly at 'disaggregated' sub-national and local levels. The 2030 Agenda specifically demands the need for new data acquisition and integration approaches, including to exploit the contribution to be made by geospatial information and earth observations. The sixth expert meeting of the Working Group on Geospatial Information of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators was hosted by Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI). 24 participants participated in the meeting held at INEGI's headquarters in México City, México and another 11 participated remotely. Of these 24 participants, 18 were expert representatives from 7 Member States. The meeting sought to respond to the call by the Secretary-General for specific actions towards "strengthening collection, access and effective use of data for the Goals; and harnessing science, technology and innovation with a greater focus on digital transformation for sustainable development. The three-day meeting considered both substantive and administrative matters before the Working Group. The Working Group had an updated terms of reference provided by the IAEG-SDGs and with a reconstituted membership with diverse expertise, experience and capacity, considered how geospatial information, earth observations and other data can reliably and consistently contribute to the production and dissemination of indicators. The meeting also considered how the Working Group can improve working modalities with the IAEG-SDGs and custodian agencies, develop guidance and share proven practices in the application of geospatial information for visualisation, dissemination and monitoring of the SDGs, integration of statistics and geospatial information, and data disaggregation. The Working Group planned to develop storytelling documents and guidance on the use of existing frameworks and standards to apply geospatial information for the production of indicators, and for data disaggregation according to geographic location. The meeting agreed on a series of tasks, with deliverables in the near and medium terms, and agreed to update its work plan to incorporate agreed tasks for 2020 - 2021.

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Description: Marine geospatial information is an integral component of global geospatial information management, contributing to the availability and accessibility of comprehensive location-based information to support Governments in developing policies, priorities and programmes, make decisions, and measure and monitor progress and outcomes. Marine geospatial information is essential for the effective management, administration and governance of marine spaces that encompasses inland water bodies and waterways, coastal zones, seas and oceans. The Working Group aims to play a leading role in integrated marine geospatial information management to support the wellbeing of billions of inhabitants reliant on sustainable inland water bodies and waterways, coastal zones, seas and oceans. Thirty three participants, twenty three expert representatives from eighteen Member States, met in the comfortable and conducive meeting facility provided by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) of Germany, a member of the working group. The expert meeting was held at the Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde in Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany from 24 - 28 February 2020. During the first half of the week, the working group had joint meeting sessions with the marine spatial data infrastructure working group of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the marine domain working group of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The joint meeting sessions proved beneficial, avoided duplicative agenda items, promoted better understanding and hence considerations of matters that are important to the marine geospatial information community. The meeting considered both substantive and administrative matters before the working group. This included, but not limited to, reviewing and revising the work plan for the period 2021 - 2022 at a later date; the application of marine geospatial information to support the management of coastal zones, including the preparation of management plans. In addressing the land and sea interface, the need to collaborate across the marine, terrestrial and cadastral domains was stressed. The meeting considered issues and challenges with regards to the collection, storage, management and sharing of geospatial information as relate to inland water bodies and waterways. In addressing geospatial information issues and challenges for inland water bodies and waterways and the land and sea interface, the working group will consider integrated geospatial data management approach including in support of integrated ecosystems-based management. The working group in recognizing that marine geospatial information must be made available, accessible and discoverable for a multiplicity of applications and purposes, continue to advance its efforts and work plan, including working towards a reference document on the implementation of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework for the marine domain - for the administration, management and governance of oceans and seas, coastal zones and deltas, inland water bodies and waterways.

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Description: Adequately and systematically utilizing alternative data sources and methodologies, including geospatial information and Earth observations, presents a unique opportunity to meet the ambitious demand of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The importance of integrating geospatial information with statistics in supporting social, economic, and environmental policymaking was also recognized by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2013, which led to the establishment of an (Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information: http://ggim.un.org/UNGGIM-expert-group/). The Expert Group provides a forum for coordination and dialogue among representatives of both statistical and geospatial communities with a view to developing a global statistical-geospatial framework as a standard for the integration of statistical and geospatial information. In this webinar, representatives from civil society, international organization and a national statistics office will showcase how statistical and geospatial information is integrated to measure progress in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This webinar is part of the United Nations World Data Forum webinar series and provides an opportunity to learn first-hand from practitioners on bringing data sources together and creating an enabling environment for the integration and use of non-traditional data sources. Speakers Moderator: Gregory Scott, Inter-Regional Adviser, UN-GGIM, United Nations Statistics Division Panelist: Paloma Merodio Gomez, Vice President, INEGI Presentation Panelist: Steffen Fritz, Acting Program Director, Ecosystem Services and Management (ESM), IIASA Presentation Panelist: Kevin McCormack, Head of Division, Sustainable Development Goals Indicators & Reports and Geography, Central Statistics Office, Ireland Presentation Speakers' bios

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Description: The first United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress held in Deqing, Zhejiang Province, China from 19 to 21 November 2018, convened under the purview of the United Nations, substantively improved and strengthened the role of geospatial information management, innovation and related technologies towards implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to keep the promise to leave no one behind.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: Geospatial information systems for monitoring and decision-making supporting tools are increasingly useful in sustainable economic development and disaster risk reduction including drought, natural resource management and land management. The latest innovations in geospatial information system have presented new opportunities through applications of geospatial technologies and data in promoting sustainable land management and resource management. For example, land accounting and land statistics could be significantly enhanced with the use of advanced geospatial technology and data. Digitized land cover databases for physical land accounts, such as the FAO Global Land Cover, have been greatly enriched in the past decades. However, there are still opportunities to improve the land management, land accounts and land statistics in particular, in terms of ecological land use and regulations. Combined statistical and geospatial data will enhance government decision-making through competent use of advanced land accounting systems in a more environmental friendly manner by using satellite images and geospatial data. It will also help identify potential directions for urban development, calculating seasonal crop yield, managing national infrastructure and transport networks, sustaining environmental stability, as well as combatting drought, land degradation and desertification. In order to support member States in the Central Asian region, ESCAP with the support from the Government of the Russian Federation, has started a new project in May 2019 titled “Strengthening institutional capacity on integrating geospatial and statistical data, with a focus on land accounts in Central Asia” for a duration of two years. The key objective of the project is to strengthen institutional capacity on integrating geospatial and statistical data of member States in Central Asia, with a focus on land accounts. Its strategic objectives include strengthening cooperative relations between national statistics offices, space agencies and international organizations. The project is designed as part of the overarching framework of the Asia-Pacific Plan of Action on Space Applications for Sustainable Development (2018–2030) and in accordance with the UNGGIM Integrated Geospatial Information Framework. This project will mainly contribute to the implementation of SDG 15 (life on land) and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals). As the first action of the project, an inception workshop is being organized in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 14 to 15 November 2019 to identify needs and opportunities of the participating countries of the Central Asian region, share results and key findings of assessment on geospatial and statistical data on land accounts, explore existing frameworks, models, and practices on applications of geospatial information system on land accounts and statistics, and share good practices in the region. Meeting Report (English | Russian) Concept note Programme

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: The Deqing International Workshop and Seminar on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management, with the theme “The Data Ecosystem for Sustainable Development”, provided a forum for participants to discuss and exchange information, experiences and knowledge on available integrative technologies and processes to bring together data from multiple sources, collected for differing uses to deliver information and evidence on interactions and relationships between people, place, events and activities. The workshop and seminar deliberated key motivations, features and considerations for a data ecosystem for sustainable development that delivers the evidence on 'where' people interact with their place and environments, events and activities (including economic activities), and to deliver timely and reliable information necessary for citizens, businesses, organizations and governments to build accountable actions and evidenced-based decisions. The United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management Section, Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in collaboration with the Government of China through the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Zhejiang Provincial Government, jointly organized the Deqing International Workshop and Seminar with the support of the Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for Asia and the Pacific (UN-GGIM-AP) and the Deqing County Government.

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Description: The sixth meeting of the Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information was held on 8 - 9 October 2019 in the Stanley Room of the Midland Hotel, in Manchester, United Kingdom. This was the first face-to-face meeting of its members since the adoption of the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework (GSGF) by UN-GGIM at its ninth session in August 2019. Hosted by the Office for National Statistics and Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom, the EG-ISGI meeting was attended by 27 participants from: Australia, Canada, Germany, Finland, France, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America as well as by representatives from the International Cartographic Association, Eurostat, and the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) Secretariat from the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). The meeting was co-Chaired by Mr. Martin Brady (Australia) and Mr. Sergio Carrera, on behalf of Ms. Paloma Merodio (Mexico). The meeting discussed the adoption of the GSGF, structured a Work Plan for the next 3 years as a basis for the future work of the EG-ISGI, discussed its new modalities, and appointed two new co-Chairs by acclamation, among other pertinent matters.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: This first international workshop seeks to contribute to the strengthening of nationally integrated geospatial information management towards the producing, disseminating and applying of geospatial information for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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Description: The ninth session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) will be held from 7 - 9 August 2019 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. UN-GGIM, as the apex intergovernmental mechanism for setting directions and making decisions with regard to global geospatial information management, reports to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on all matters relating to geography, geospatial information and related topics.

Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link

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Description: In conjunction with the fourth expert consultation and meeting on the development of the Implementation Guide of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework, the UN Secretariat for Global Geospatial Information Management, the Department of Survey and Mapping, Ministry of Water, Lands and Natural Resources Malaysia and the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia organized this one-day International Seminar to share knowledge and raise awareness on the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework and it's the Implementation Guide as a basis, a reference and a mechanism for country-level activities to establish, strengthen and organize geospatial information management arrangements nationally or sub-nationally. There were approximately 460 national, regional and international participants at this one-day international seminar that delivered considerable awareness and understanding of the importance of reliable, timely and quality information coupled with positional and temporal context for evidence-based policies and programmes nationally and sub-nationally including at the project and community level. The international seminar reinforced the discussions at the expert consultation and meeting - that advocacy and raising awareness, communicating the value and significance of geospatial information management is crucial. Of particular note was recognition of the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework as a mechanism to elevate the message, the perspectives, the value proposition for growing political knowledge and understanding in integrated geospatial information management.

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Description: The aim of the course is: (a) to improve the capacity of national statistical services to produce high quality ESA 2010 national accounts; (b) to achieve an understanding of the theoretical basis and structure of ESA 2010 national accounts, together with sources and methodology; (c) to provide a general overview and an understanding of the links of the different areas of the system of NA (excluding financial accounts).

Target Audience: Staff working in National Statistical Institutes and Competent National Authorities on the compilation of National Accounts (NA). The course is targeted at junior statisticians with at least one year's experience in NA through to staff with several years' experience. ESTP Trainings are open to non-ESS members if capacity allows after ESS needs are fulfilled.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

Description: The 2019 Session of the "new" United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) was convened from 29 April to 3 May 2019 at the UNHQ, conference room 2, in New York. The session, organized by the United Nations Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, brought together 264 participants representing 70 Member States, one observer (Palestine), and two inter-governmental organizations; International Cartographic Association, and International Geographic Association. They discussed and deliberated on strategies, methodologies and best practices by which the standardization of geographical names throughout the world can be advanced for the benefit of all citizens, governments and non-governmental organizations.

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Title in Spanish: Información geoespacial como soporte a la agenda 2030, perspectivas de actores gubernamentales y no gubernamentales

Description: Este taller es un evento paralelo de la tercera reunión del Foro de los Países de América Latina y el Caribe sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible - 2019. Es organizado por la División de Estadísticas de la CEPAL y la Fundación Geocensos.

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Description: The course will introduce the theoretical and practical knowledge of geospatial information and its use for statistics, including for statistical maps. The main focus will be on integrating statistical and geospatial data for analysis and visualisation and to understand the potential of spatial analysis. Additionally, participants will learn the techniques and (online) tools for creating and publishing statistical maps and gain hands-on experience with GIS and map making.

Target Audience: Statisticians involved in the production and analysis of statistical data. Who want to learn how to geo-enable and present statistical maps. Who want to learn basic principles of spatial analysis using statistical data and an Open Source GIS software (QGIS). ESTP Trainings are open to non-ESS members if capacity allows after ESS needs are fulfilled.

Contact: ESTAT-ESTP-CONTACTS@ec.europa.eu

Description: In August 2018, the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) adopted the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF), which was jointly developed by the United Nations Statistics Division and the World Bank under a collaborative arrangement. The IGIF comprises three separate but connected documents. The Overarching Strategic Framework has been completed and adopted by UN-GGIM at its eighth session in August 2018. The Integrated Geospatial Information Framework provides a basis, a reference and a mechanism for countries when establishing or strengthening their national geospatial information management arrangements and related infrastructures, or to coordinate activities to achieve alignment between and across existing national capabilities and infrastructures. The Framework aims to translate high-level concepts to practical implementation guidance and does this by leveraging seven (7) underpinning principles, eight (8) goals and nine (9) strategic pathways as a means for governments to establish and maintain more effective geospatial information management arrangements. The Implementation Guide will provide the specific guidance and recommends actions to be taken by Member States to establish, improve or strengthen their national arrangements in geospatial information management, systems and infrastructure.

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Description: The Working Group met in the context of having being established by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management at its seventh session in August 2017 to substantively address marine geospatial information with terms of reference that include issues related to inland water bodies and waterways with an overarching proviso to focus on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular, Sustainable Development Goal 14 - Life below water and to an extent, Goal 6 - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

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Description: The geospatial and statistical professional communities are major contributors of information to support policy- and decision-making processes across many public and private sectors. With the increasing complexity of national, regional and global challenges and issues, the need to better understand the interrelationships across the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development is becoming ever more critical. In this connection, there is a clear recognition that one of the key challenges is a better integration of geospatial (which includes much environmental information) and statistical information (which includes much socioeconomic information) as a basis for sound and evidence-based policy- and decision-making. UN entities and key stakeholders such as the United Nations Statistical Commission (Statistical Commission) and the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) have explored the global statistical and geospatial framework to support the assessment of the progress in implementing disaster-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The geo-statistical results can significantly improve the quality of official statistics for the measuring and monitoring of SDGs, including disaster risks and impacts. Documents EGM Report Concept Note List of Participants Programme Presentations Basic Data Requirements for Geo-based Risk Assessment Disaster-related Statistical Geospatial Indicators Developing geo-statistical indicators and adaptive pathways for disaster risk reduction

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