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United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure

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The United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) is an institutional and technical mechanism for establishing system coherence for the exchange and applications of geospatial data and information for UN activities and supporting SDI development activities in Member Countries.

Background of UNSDI

UNSDI is an initiative of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG).

UNSDI aims to contribute to the mission of the United Nations, from to peacekeeping to humanitarian relief, from climate change to disaster reduction, response and recovery, from environmental protection to poverty reduction, food security, water management and economic development and to contribute to the realization of the UN Millennium Development Goals. By facilitating efficient global and local access, exchange and utilization of geospatial information, UNSDI will make the United Nations system more effective and support its “Delivering as One” policies.

Spatial data infrastructures provide the institutional and technical foundation of policies, standards and procedures that enable organizations and information systems to interact in a way that facilitates spatial data discovery, evaluation and applications.

Given that UN agencies vary in their ability to utilise and manage geospatial information it is foreseen that UNSDI will reduce development and operational costs by working together to achieve economies of scale through generic standards, guidelines and implementation tools. Thus, the development of UNSDI is considered essential for increasing system coherence in the use and exchange of geospatial data and information for UN activities.

In the short term, UNSDI is an investment into the capacities of the United Nations System to manage its existing geo-spatial assets more effectively. Additionally UNSDI will serve as a model and vehicle for capacity building in Member States that request assistance from the United Nations in managing and applying geospatial data to support their national development agenda.


UNSDI development at regional level

The first dialogue meeting between UNGIWG-UNSDI and national and regional-level SDI partners, dubbed the UNSDI Global Partners Meeting (UGPM), has been held on 1 and 2 March 2007, hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) at its ESRIN facilities in Frascati, Italy. This meeting, is considered as a seminal milestone event in the history and development of UNSDI. A key outcome of the meeting is the 'Frascati Statement', an often quoted document that demonstrates and highlights the groundswell of support from within the UN system and the member states: '...the establishment of a UNSDI as proposed by the UNGIWG forms a fundamental framework to exchange data across many agencies and disciplines for the mutual benefit of both the UN system and its Member Countries'. The UGPM was organized back to back with the final ESA-FAO-JRC "Heterogeneous Missions Accessibility (HMA) Workshop conducted by ESA on 27 and 28 February 2007 at ESRIN. The presentations and discussions of the UGPM can be found here.

UNSDI development at national level

Underlying the UNSDI is the need to link UNSDI with national public and private geospatial and SDI capacities, both in developed and developing countries. To this end National Coordination Offices for UNSDI are to be established.

Discussions are also ongoing within the SDI communities in Spain and the Federal Republic of Germany on UNSDI. Furthermore, it is believed that SDI authorities in the following countries and regional organizations may respond positively to an UNGIWG invitation to join the UNSDI development process if it was given: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Hungary, Jamaica, India, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Mongolia, Nigeria, Spain and South Africa. The following regional Organizations joined the process: The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Nairobi, Kenya, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nauru, Nepal, and the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS) in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

National Coordination Offices

References

Documents

Key documentation on the UNSDI initiative can be found at and downloaded from http://www.ungiwg.org/documents.htm

National UNSDI portals

The Netherlands


(Jan Cees Venema, UNSDI-NCO)

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