1. Thematic Breakout Session: Panel 10.1: Integration of Geospatial, Socio- Economic & Biomedical Data for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development Report by: Raed M. Sharif

2. Panel 7.2. Environmental & Geospatial Data & Metadata Chair: Luiz Henrique Proença, President IPEA, Brazil Rapporteur: Raed Sharif, University of Syracuse, USA Speakers: –Integration of environmental, social and health data using GIS: Lessons learned from three disease outbreaks investigations in rural areas, Christovam Barcellos, Fiocruz, Brazil –Uses of Geographic Information Systems for Global Public Health. The GIS- EPI Project. Carlos Castillo-Salgado, PAHO –Integrating Environmental and Social Data, Marjorie McGuirk, NOAA, USA –Geospatial Data for Health and Environmental Applications in Latin America: A Focus on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development, Paul Uhlir, The U.S. National Academies and Raed M. Sharif, The U.S. National Academies and Syracuse University Number of attendees : 14 including 4 speakers, the chair and the Rapporteur

3. What are the current challenges and barriers to providing open and permanent access to data and information in this field? Legal: –GIS has very few regulations regarding privacy and security (our location is not protected) –Ownership protection become more problematic for data providers as well as data recipients –Licenses, contracts and copyrights Political: –Most of the GIS data in most countries are, on purpose, not consistent (e.g., geographic boundaries) –Getting accurate GIS data is challenging sometimes –Policies on open access and archiving need to be implemented in universities and research centers –Training and coordination across states (political) boundaries –Politicizing health data- The outbreak will affect the economy –Primary producers of Geospatial data are governments Economic: –Accessible software needs training- Training and a local level is very challenging and expensive –Data exchange is very power intensive

4. What are the current challenges and barriers to providing open and permanent access to data and information in this field? Social and cultural: –Important societal issues often require: Data/observation from a variety of observing systems Management and analysis of these data is not easy –Incompatible format between science disciplines : e.g., Naming standards, location standards, format. –Natural language barriers Technical (related to health): –The use of second (and third) level boundaries (state and municipality) is very important for health and GIS- Metadata and coding issues –Privacy of individual patients data –Availability of basic statistical units –Validation of the data –Linking health data with other fields data- How to link the health with the environmental and social information systems?

5. What are some of the most promising existing models or mechanisms for providing such access? World Meteorological Organization resolutions #40 and #25 ensures open access to data for global exchange International Cooperative Programs GEOSS –GEO Architecture Group (Brazil, France, Japan, US, WMO, ESA) –GEO Capacity Building Subgroup (Argentina, Belize/CCAD, Brazil, Israel, Republic of Congo, US) –GEO Data Utilization Subgroup (Brazil, CANADA, US, ECMWF) –GEO User Requirements Subgroup (Canada, Italy, UK) –GEO International Cooperation subgroup ( Austria, US, IOC) Global Earth Observation Integrated Data Environment (GEO-IDE) GEO-NET Cast Many other Bilateral and Multilateral Projects: –NOAA and the Uruguayan Meteorological Service project on Data Sources The Statistical Commission The OECD- Innovation Surveys CDC, NIH, WHO. Consortium of GIS and Public Health- WHO,PAHO, CDC, Health Canada, and NIH RIPSA-Network of institutions working on all data including Geospatial data

6. HOW? Geospatial Data for Health and Environmental Applications in Latin America: A Focus on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development. WHO? The U.S. National Academies taking the lead The Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences (TBC) The Pan-American Institute for Geography and History (PAIGH) HOW? Implementation of the 2 nd level boundaries PAHO will be distributing all 2 nd level boundaries to all Latin America countries WHO? PAHO to take the lead in drafting a proposal WHO, UN, Individual national statistical institutes HOW? Develop methods/mechanisms to validate health data- What kind of validation criteria? WHO? RIPSA to take the lead PAHO, RIPSA, National Health Information Systems HOW? Identify and leverage existing ongoing initiatives at a regional and national levels towards linking health Information systems with other Social and Environmental systems. WHO? Brazilian and the US Science Academies CODATA, GEOSS What are some potential realistic cooperative activities in Latin America to help address the challenges and barriers that have been identified?