1. Ad hoc statistical meeting
OGC Technical Committee – Orleans, France
22 March 2018

2. Session overview Integration of statistics and geospatial data
The need for standards to support integration
Joint UNECE/UN-GGIM:Europe workshop on standards
Proposed OGC charter for a Statistical Domain Working Group
Use cases
Discussion
Wrap up and next steps

3. 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda
“implementation of 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda requires solid framework of statistical data to monitor progress”
Global framework of 232 statistical indicators adopted by General Assembly in 2017
Framework developed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs)
Sustainable Development Goal indicators should be disaggregated, by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability and geographic location, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics

7. Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs)
Tasked by UN Statistical Commission to develop a global indicator framework for the 17 goals and 169 targets of the 2030 Agenda, and to support its implementation.
Needs to address issue of alternative data sources and methodologies for statistical data, including geospatial information and Earth observations in the context of geographic location.
IAEG-SDG created a Working Group on Geospatial Information at its third meeting April 2016.
Purpose of the Working Group is to:
Provide expertise and advice on how geospatial information can contribute to the indicators. 1
Provide guidance on the role of NSOs in considering geospatial information for contributing to and validating SDG indicators. 2
Review indicators through a 'geographic’ lens and identify geospatial data gaps, methodological and measurements issues. 3
Consider how geospatial information can contribute to the indicators and metadata 4
Provide national and regional level experiences and best practices in geospatial data 5
Propose methodological work on specific areas for improving disaggregation by geographic location 6

8. International mandate

9. Global Statistical Geospatial Framework: Timeline
44th UNSC
Mar 2013
45th UNSC
Mar 2014
46th UNSC
Mar 2015
47th UNSC
Mar 2016
48th UNSC
Mar 2017
49th UNSC
Mar 2018
3rd UN-GGIM
Aug 2013
4th UN-GGIM
Aug 2014
5th UN-GGIM
Aug 2015
6th UN-GGIM
Aug 2016
7th UN-GGIM
Aug 2017
8th UN-GGIM
Aug 2018
EG-ISGI established Mar 2013
Global Forum
Aug 2014
EG-ISGI
Informal side event
Aug 2015
EG-ISGI
Formal side event
Aug 2016
EG-ISGI
Formal side event
Aug 2017
4th EG-ISGI
Nov 2017
+ UNECE workshop
1st EG-ISGI
Nov 2013
2nd EG-ISGI
May 2015
3rd EG-ISGI
Apr 2016
EG-ISGI
Side event
Mar 2016
EG-ISGI WebX
May 2017

12. Integration of statistics and geospatial information

13. But the reality is more like……

14. Expert Group – changed mandate
The EG-ISGI does not have the resource to manage all activity related to the integration of statistics and geospatial information
Instead let the activity continue to sit with the technical expertise and focus on coordination and alignment
What are the means to elevate to the Expert Group? How do we take the role of overall coordination?
Expert Group members should focus on engaging with relevant international bodies connected with these efforts.

15. UNECE/UN-GGIM:Europe Standards Workshop
Around 70 attendees from across Europe but also attended by Australia, US, New Zealand, Canada, Mongolia and Japan.
Lots of commonality in global approaches to integrating statistics and geospatial. Being driven by 5 principles of GSGF and in Europe, INSPIRE. 
Challenges are not necessarily technical but more about culture, behaviour and communication between the statistical and geospatial communities.
Knowledge gap between two communities that makes integrated data architecture more difficult as geospatial does not fit well to the existing statistical processes
Terminology can be misinterpreted between communities - models, frameworks and standards.
recognition that existing statistical frameworks (GSBPM, GSIM and CSPA) don’t currently consider geospatial data. Needs to be captured as part of upcoming GSBPM and GSIM reviews.

16. Proposed future standards work
A pitch statement to present to senior managers and leaders to gain buy-in and funding
A beginner’s guide to using standards from both communities.
Both communities to develop communication materials that simply describe the interrelationships between their frameworks, models and standards.
Pilot to determine options for persistent ids to link aggregate statistical outputs to standard geographies.
Look for opportunities to work on semantic interoperability issues (for example, ontology for addresses and buildings).
Improve the discoverability of geospatial tools that are based on standards.
Guidance on how to store geospatial objects references/links in existing statistical databases
Map the data exchange process between statistical and geospatial organizations.
Examine comparative use cases for application of traditional geography and emerging grid technologies, particularly for dissemination of statistics.
Examine pathways and interest within Statistical Community to move to formal ISO Standards for models and frameworks in addition to existing ones (e.g. ISO/TC 154).
Proposed future standards work

17. Proposed Statistical Domain Working Group
Purpose:
“The Statistical DWG is chartered to identify requirements and use cases of how geospatial and statistical standards can support the integration of geospatial information into the statistical system and for the purposes of broad discovery, analysis and use”

18. Statistical DWG – Problem statement
Geospatial information is key to transforming the way statistics are produced. The complexity of integrating multiple data sources with geospatial information driving increased need for standardisation to support better statistical outputs.
challenges under consideration within the proposed DWG include:
Integration – how can semantic web improve integration of geospatial and statistical datasets?
Capture – how can geospatial data be used to capture and georeference survey, admin and big datasets for statistics?
Processing – as geospatial objects do not fit within traditional database structures these are currently handled externally to the rest of the statistical process through dedicated geospatial systems.
Exchange – given lack of interoperability between statistical and geospatial data architectures, frameworks, metadata and standards, how can data be shared through a service orientated approach?
Analysis – lack of comparability at national, regional and global level makes analysis difficult.
Knowledge – lack of understanding within statistical community of geospatial tools and standards

19. Statistical DWG – Proposed charter members*
UK Office for National Statistics
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Sultinate of Oman National Centre for Statistics and Information
Abu Dhabi Statistics Centre
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografíca (INEGI)
US Census Bureau
*based on me being new to OGC and having searched for statistical organisations – by no means complete but I need help

20. Statistical DWG – Key activities
Discuss and identify primary statistical use cases that would benefit from OGC standards.
Identify statistical domain requirements for inclusion in existing or new OGC standards.
Identify other practice areas in the OGC that support or could be influenced by statistics.
Identify statistics-related use cases and workflows for Interoperability Experiments or Testbeds.

21. Statistical DWG – Business case
With the support of OGC in the creation and maintenance of relevant standards, the statistical domain will benefit by:
An increased understanding of the value of geospatial data to the statistical system;
Greater interoperability between statistical and geospatial data architectures;
Greater quality and accuracy of statistical data by linking it to geospatial data;
also generates similar benefits for geospatial community

22. Statistical DWG – Business goals
Efforts should focus on working statistical issues and problems that result in a net gain for the community.
Minimize technical distinctions between statistical data processing systems that use geography, as this can lead to artificial barriers that limit the potential of all segments of the information community to come together and fully prosper.
Avoid placing artificial technical barriers on use of statistical data.
Establish the means by which OGC can achieve interoperability and yet preserve the proprietary nature of data.
Define the supporting infrastructure for the community to achieve these goals.

23. Statistical DWG – Mission and role
The Statistics DWG will concern itself with technology and technology policy issues, focusing on geodata information and technology interests as related to the statistical domain and the means by which those issues are appropriately factored into the OGC standards development process.
The role of the Statistical DWG will be to present, refine and focus statistical and geospatial interoperability-related issues to the Technical Committee.

24. Statistical DWG – Planned activities
Outreach to and organisation of OGC members as well as external organisations to contribute to the DWG. 1
Describe the landscape of statistical production and identify the opportunities for the integration of geospatial information. 2
Communicate the geospatial requirements from the statistical community to the OGC. 3
Communicate the geospatial expertise in the OGC, such as existing applicable standards, to the statistical community. 4
Insert statistical requirements into other OGC standards and interoperability activities. 5

25. Use cases:
Discrete Global Grid System
Table Joining Service
Spatial Data on the Web
GeoPackage

26. DISCUSSION: THE NEED FOR A STATISTICAL DWG

27. Next steps First meeting of the Statistical Domain Working Group
30 July 2018 – New York
Dial in options available