IOS Press Integrating statistical and geospatial information, …ggim.un.org/documents/sji-32-sji1018.pdf · 2017-11-28 · Statistical Journal of the IAOS 32 (2016) 457–470 457

Statistical Journal of the IAOS 32 (2016) 457–470 457DOI 10.3233/SJI-161018IOS Press

Integrating statistical and geospatialinformation, cultures and professions:International developments and Australianexperience

Gemma Van Halderena,∗, Stuart Minchinb, Martin Bradya and Greg Scottc,daAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, AustraliabGeoscience Australia, Canberra, AustraliacUnited Nations Statistics Division, New York, USAdDepartment of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract. For more than half a century, the United Nations (UN) Statistical Commission has been the highest body of the globalstatistical system. Bringing together Chief Statisticians, the UN Statistical Commission considers and decides upon statisticalstandards and the development of concepts and methods, and their implementation at the national and international level. Incontrast, the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management has existed for only the last 5 years.Established by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 2011, the Committee brings together senior national gov-ernment geospatial experts to develop strategies to build and strengthen national capacity on geospatial information, as well asdisseminate best practices and experiences of national, regional and international bodies on geospatial information.The 60th International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress, held in Brazil in July 2015, recognised the importance ofthe integration of statistical and geospatial information. The then President of the International Association for Official Statistics,Professor Kawasaki, used his Presidential Address to shine a light on this important area for official statistics.Driven by a growing demand for better data for more informed decision-making, there is an increasing body of material availableabout the technical aspects and benefits of bringing together statistical and geospatial information, but little has been writtenabout the cultural aspects of two diverse professional communities working together. This paper focuses on some of these culturalaspects, and highlights cooperation underway globally, and nationally within Australia, and provides some suggestions for furtherimprovement.

Keywords: Official statisticians, geospatial experts, big data, Earth observations, Sustainable Development Goals, integration ofstatistical and geospatial information

1. Introduction

The UN Statistical Commission, established in 1947,is the highest entity of the global statistical system,bringing together on an annual basis Chief Statisticians

∗Corresponding author: Gemma Van Halderen, Locked Bag 10,Belconnen, A.C.T., 2616 Australia, Tel.: +61 2 6252 6977; E-mail:[email protected].

from Member States and related specialised agenciesfrom around the world. As a full UN intergovernmen-tal body, it is the highest decision making mechanismfor international statistical activities, especially in thesetting of statistical standards and the development ofconcepts and methods and their implementation at thenational and international level.

Originally established due to the need for concertedaction to achieve an integrated system in the collection,

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458 G. Van Halderen et al. / Integrating statistical and geospatial information, cultures and professions

processing and dissemination of international statis-tics, the UN Statistical Commission assists the UNEconomic and Social Council (ECOSOC), as a fullyfunctional Commission, in five areas: promoting thedevelopment of national statistics and the improvementof their comparability; coordination of the statisticalwork of specialised agencies; development of the cen-tral statistical services of the Secretariat; advising theorgans of the UN on general questions relating to thecollection, analysis and dissemination of statistical in-formation; and promoting the improvement of statis-tics and statistical methods generally.

Geospatial experts from Member States of the UNare currently exploring a similar path. In 2009, the UNStatistics Division convened an informal consultativemeeting with geospatial information experts from dif-ferent regions of the world. The experts discussed howto better coordinate various regional and global ac-tivities on geospatial information and related manage-ment issues. Subsequent to the consultative meeting,the UN Statistics Division, jointly with the UN Carto-graphic Section, convened three preparatory meetingson global geospatial information management: the firstin Bangkok in October 2009; the second in New York,in May 2010; and the third one also in New York, inApril 2011.

In October 2009 and February 2010 respectively, the18th UN Regional Cartographic Conference for Asiaand the Pacific and the 41st session of the UN Statis-tical Commission both discussed the issue of globalgeospatial information management. The UN Statis-tics Division Secretariat was requested to initiate dis-cussion with Member States and relevant stakehold-ers, and prepare a report for the approval of ECOSOCon global coordination of geospatial information man-agement, including consideration of the possible cre-ation of a UN Global Forum on Geospatial Informa-tion Management. In July 2010, ECOSOC requestedthe UN Secretary-General to submit to ECOSOC at its2011 substantive session a report on global geospatialinformation management [10]. This decision paved theway for subsequent global geospatial information man-agement preparatory activities.

Taking into account the urgent need to take con-crete action to strengthen international cooperation inthe area of global geospatial information, at its sub-stantive session in July 2011, ECOSOC consideredthe report of the Secretary General [12] and adopteda resolution to create the UN Committee of Expertson Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) [11]. The first session of the UN Committee of

Experts was held in October the same year in Seoul,Republic of Korea, in conjunction with the First HighLevel Forum on Global Geospatial Information Man-agement. This was the first time that geospatial expertsfrom 90 countries met in the context of a UN initiativeto enhance global cooperation in the field of geospatialinformation management.

This paper presents an account of the journey ofthe two communities, the official statisticians and thegeospatial experts, as they come together to meet theirrespective mandates under the UN Statistical Com-mission and UN Committee of Experts on GlobalGeospatial Information Management. The paper usesthe experiences from the two professional communi-ties based in Australia to highlight changing practicesand lessons learnt, and is structured as follows.

We first discuss coordination activities of statisti-cal and geospatial agencies, including the lead rolethat Australia’s National Statistical Organisation andGeospatial Organisation have played in internationaland domestic developments. Section three discussesthe development of national statistics, including geos-patial statistics, and the improvement of their compa-rability. Section four discusses advice that the statis-tical and geospatial communities have provided to or-gans of the UN on the 2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment. Section five discusses the promotion ofimprovements to statistics and statistics methods gen-erally. The paper concludes with a general discussionon key lessons learnt and suggestions for ongoing im-provement.

2. Coordinating the statistical and geospatial workof specialised agencies

2.1. Australian Bureau of Statistics – Australia’scentral statistical authority

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is Aus-tralia’s central statistical authority. The ABS is interna-tionally recognised as a world leader in official statis-tics, unleashing the power of demographic, economic,social and environmental statistics for a better Aus-tralia.

In 2012, the ABS led, on behalf of the global statis-tical system, a review of national geospatial activitieswithin Member States with a focus on the linking ofsocio-economic information to a location. The reviewwas based on a global consultation of user needs andchallenges, areas where the value and usability of of-

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ficial statistics could be enhanced through the applica-tion of a location context, and raised awareness of na-tional geospatial activities and how national statisticaloffices could play a role in linking social-economic andspatial information [18].

Fifty-two countries contributed to the review, a re-markable response to annual UN Statistical Commis-sion programme review processes. In discussing thefindings of the review, the UN Statistical Commissionrecognised the importance of the integration of geospa-tial information and statistics in supporting social, eco-nomic and environmental policy decision-making, in-cluding at the sub-national level. It strongly supportedthe linking of social, economic and environmental datato time and location attributes in order to enrich andmaximise the potential of statistical information, whilenoting the need to provide technical assistance to coun-tries, developing countries in particular, in the earlystages of the integration process.

The UN Statistical Commission endorsed three con-crete proposals drawn from the recommendations ofthe review: a proposal to organise an internationalconference as a way of reaching out and developingbest practices, bringing together both statistical andgeospatial professional communities; a proposal to es-tablish an expert group composed of representativesof both statistical and geospatial communities to carryout work on developing a statistical-spatial frameworkas a global standard for the integration of statisticaland geospatial information, addressing various techni-cal issues (for example, the choice of basic units), aswell as institutional and information policy issues, es-pecially those related to confidentiality; and a proposalto develop an international statistical geospatial frame-work, taking into account existing national and inter-national efforts.

In terms of culture, a few observations can be madeabout the review. The review itself was led by a geospa-tial expert engaged by the ABS. This expert was well-respected within the Australian geospatial communityand could provide the appropriate leadership and guid-ance to the review. The expert collaborated with of-ficial statisticians, thus helping to bridge terminologydifferences, the analysis of different user expectationsand needs, and influence directions of the review.

To achieve the objective of integrating statisticaland geospatial information, endorsement of these threeconcrete proposals by the official statistical communitywas necessary but not sufficient. At the third sessionof the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospa-tial Information Management, held in July 2013, the

importance of integrating geospatial information withstatistics was also acknowledged. The UN StatisticalCommission’s decision to establish an Expert Groupwas also endorsed by the UN Committee of Experts,as was its mandate to develop a statistical geospatialframework as a global standard for the integration ofstatistical and geospatial information.

An important cultural aspect for reaching this jointendorsement was a presentation to the UN Committeeof Experts on Global Geospatial Information Manage-ment outlining the findings of the UN Statistical Com-mission review and its recommendations. This presen-tation, to geospatial experts, was given by an officialstatistician. This was an important professional as wellas symbolic approach. The presentation led to morethan twenty supportive interventions from geospatialexperts in support of the review’s findings and recom-mendations: a significantly important signal and out-come.

2.1.1. International workshopsAs proposed by the review of national geospatial

activities discussed earlier and endorsed by the UNStatistical Commission, an international conference,or Global Forum on the Integration of Statistical andGeospatial Information was convened on the marginsof the fourth session of the UN Committee of Expertson Global Geospatial Information Management in Au-gust 2014 [16]. The Global Forum brought togethermore than 200 senior leaders from 73 countries to dis-cuss the strategic vision and goals for the integrationof statistical and geospatial information – a world first.Organisers and participants at the Global Forum allagreed that it had met its objective to reach out and de-velop best practices by bringing together statistical andgeospatial professional communities.

In terms of culture, the Global Forum was purposelyheld on the margins of the fourth session of the UNCommittee of Experts on Global Geospatial Informa-tion Management. In other words, a decision was madeto have senior leaders from the official statistical com-munity join senior leaders from the geospatial commu-nity at their meeting. This enabled maximum coverageof geospatial experts to the Global Forum event.

In addition to the global statistical community agree-ment to hold an international workshop, the geospa-tial community also decided that an international work-shop would be a means to initiate a dialogue and toensure inclusive global consultations and communica-tions with relevant experts in determining the metricsof a statistical-geospatial framework. An International


Workshop on Integrating Geospatial and Statistical In-formation was convened by the UN Statistics Divisionin Beijing, China in June 2014 [17]. Hosted by theNational Administration of Surveying, Mapping andGeoinformation of China (NASG), the workshop wasinitially intended to be quite small, less than 50 partici-pants, technically orientated, and to provide a means to‘gauge’ how the two professional communities mightengage with the statistical geospatial framework con-cept, and with each other.

Following strong interest and expansion of capacity,the International Workshop brought together a blend of147 geospatial and statistical technical experts from 41countries that came prepared for an engaging and pro-ductive meeting. With 8 keynote and 29 technical pre-sentations from 28 country experts, the three day meet-ing discussed and demonstrated the importance of ge-ography and geospatial information to population cen-sus activities, and for collecting, processing, storing,integrating, aggregating, and disseminating data on ap-propriate platforms. The Workshop also provided theopportunity for participants to share country experi-ences of the benefits that national geospatial informa-tion authorities have derived from meeting the specificneeds of census geography/cartography and statisticalanalysis, and their overall cooperation with nationalstatistical offices.

In terms of culture, the level of participation andbreadth of technical content covered from across allgeographic regions, developed and developing coun-tries, was quite surprising. As a key outcome message,participants understood the importance of the journeyto unite our professions and business, and the collabo-ration and cooperation that is required to achieve thiscommitment. With the context that our governmentsand end users want relevant information and knowl-edge, it is up to us to transform our substantial data re-sources and intellect into an overall information man-agement framework through institutional integration.

2.1.2. Expert GroupAs agreed by both the UN Statistical Commission

and the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospa-tial Information Management, an Expert Group onthe Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Informa-tion was formed in 2013. The Expert Group initiallycomprised approximately 20 member states of theUN, with an equal balance of official statisticians andgeospatial experts. However, since its first meeting, ithas grown to comprise 35 members from 26 countriesand 4 organisations. From the 26 countries represented,

21 have membership through official statistical agen-cies and 12 through geospatial experts. Interestingly,and positively, a small number of countries have nom-inated national representatives from both their statisti-cal and geospatial agencies to be on the Expert Group.Figure 1 shows the diversity of countries representedon the Expert Group and their professional expertise.

The Expert Group has formally met twice since itsinception. At the first meeting in October 2013, heldin New York, USA, the Expert Group discussed andagreed on a Terms of Reference that explicitly askedthe Group to evaluate the statistical geospatial frame-work developed by the ABS and determine if and howit could be internationalised. The Terms of Referencewere subsequently endorsed by both the UN Statisti-cal Commission and the UN Committee of Experts onGlobal Geospatial Information Management.

At the second meeting of the Expert Group, held inMay 2015 in Lisbon, Portugal, the Expert Group eval-uated the statistical geospatial framework developedby the ABS and agreed it is a high-level frameworkthat permits the application of the framework princi-ples to the local circumstance of individual countries.The Expert Group discussed and agreed that the prac-tical application of the principles in countries such asMexico provide a powerful demonstration of the bene-fits of these principles, and that the Generic StatisticalBusiness Process Model (GSBPM), developed by theUN Economic Commission for Europe Conference ofStatisticians and assessed through a geospatial lens bythe European Geography and Statistics Forum for Eu-rostat, provides a link to internationally agreed statisti-cal processes for geospatial information.

The Expert Group agreed to prepare a Global Sta-tistical Geospatial Framework incorporating aspects ofthe three models – the Australian model, the practicalapplication of the model in UN member states such asMexico, and the GSBPM – as the basis for a GlobalFramework.

The third meeting of the Expert Group was recentlyheld in April 2016 in Paris on the margins of the Con-ference of European Statisticians. The Expert Groupprovided final comments on an advanced draft of a pro-posal for a Global Statistical Geospatial Framework.The expert group agreed that this proposal would bemoved to the global consultation phase. The GlobalFramework would then be submitted to the the UNCommittee of Experts on Global Geospatial Informa-tion Management in 2016 and the UN Statistical Com-mission early 2017 for adoption. It also sought to clar-ify future plans for the consolidation of material that


Fig. 1. 2015 membership of the Expert Group on the integration of statistical and geospatial information.

would support the framework and promote and sup-port its implementation in global initiatives such as theglobal indicator framework for the Sustainable Devel-opment Goals (SDGs) and the UN 2020 Round of Pop-ulation Censuses.1

The Expert Group could not have achieved suchprogress with its mandate without the interdisciplinarynature of the Expert Group membership or the strongsupport from their governing bodies – the UN Statisti-cal Commission and the UN Committee of Experts onGlobal Geospatial Information Management. The Ex-pert Group is co-chaired by Australia and Mexico, rep-resenting the official statistical community (Australia)and the geospatial science community (Mexico). Par-ticipants from inter-governmental groups, such as theEuropean Commission, also attend and several mem-bers are also members of professional organisationssuch as the International Association of Official Statis-ticians, the International Statistics Institute and the Eu-ropean Forum for Geography and Statistics.

2.1.3. Global statistical geospatial frameworkIt is now readily accepted that integrating statisti-

cal and geospatial information is critical for: regional,

1http://ggim.un.org/UN_GGIM_Expert%20Group.html.

national and global decision making processes; mea-suring and monitoring sustainable development goals;supporting data sharing between institutions; promot-ing investment and capability building in geospatialand statistical information; building institutional col-laboration between geospatial and statistical commu-nities; and for unlocking new insights that would neverhave been possible by looking at socio-economic orgeospatial data in isolation. The challenge is “how bestto achieve this integration in an effective and consis-tent way” [18]. The Global Forum on the Integration ofStatistical and Geospatial Information, mentioned ear-lier, identified that “there is an urgent need for a mech-anism, such as a global statistical-spatial framework,to facilitate consistent production and integration ap-proaches for geo-statistical information” [16].

The ABS recognised some time ago the need for andchallenge of better integration of geospatial and sta-tistical information and responded by developing theStatistical Spatial Framework [6]. This framework pro-vides Australia with a common approach to connect-ing socio-economic or people-centric information to aphysical location, and improves the accessibility andusability of geospatially-enabled information.

The Statistical Spatial Framework consists of fiveprinciples that are considered essential for integrat-


ing geospatial and socio-economic information. Theseare: authoritative geospatial infrastructure and geocod-ing; data management; common geography; statisticaland geospatial metadata interoperability; and accessi-ble and useable geostatistics. Attachment 1 details thevision, goals and outcomes of these principles, as wellas the Australian implementation of these generic prin-ciples.

As discussed earlier, the Expert Group has debatedthe Australian Statistical Spatial Framework at both ofits meetings and heard from several countries apply-ing the framework to their national circumstances. TheExpert Group has concluded that the Australian Statis-tical Spatial Framework is a practical, principle-basedframework that is flexible enough to be customisedto suit national contexts. Moreover, the framework isan effective mechanism to improve the geospatial en-ablement of statistical information so that it can be ef-fectively integrated with data from national and inter-national geospatial and statistical information infras-tructures to support analysis and informed decision-making. The framework is also recognised as a tool forencouraging thinking and discussion between geospa-tial and statistical communities, especially as institu-tions modernise and transform their infrastructure andtechnology.

The Statistical Spatial Framework and its globalparent, the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework,provide a bridge between the official statistical andgeospatial profession. Statistical units are geocodedusing a geospatial, addressing layer. Data is then re-leased for the geographic boundaries in the bound-ary layer. This supports integration of data across di-verse sources and provides the bridge between statis-tical datasets through use of a common geography. Asmore data is released on a common geography, it cre-ates an increasingly valuable network of integrated in-formation.

For developing countries, the Global StatisticalGeospatial Framework has been designed to be flexi-ble enough to accommodate differing levels of statis-tical and geospatial infrastructure capability. For ex-ample, not all countries have standardised addressingsystems or methods to accurately geocode location de-scriptions. This flexibility in the Global Frameworkwas incorporated as a result of input provided throughthe geospatial and statistical members of the ExpertGroup. That said, the Global Framework also providesa road map for developing countries to guide develop-ment of both their statistical and geospatial infrastruc-ture, with a focus view to fully implement the prin-

ciples and realise the benefits offered by the GlobalFramework. The Expert Group also provides a richsource of information and advice for those countrieswishing to learn, and improve on, the experiences ofother countries that have been working on these infras-tructure elements for some time.

Culturally, the development of the Australian Sta-tistical Spatial Framework would not have been possi-ble without the expertise and experience of a geospa-tial expert engaged by the ABS to undertake this work.Collaborating with official statisticians, the geospa-tial expert was able to identify principles and link-ages to existing Australian and international standards,both statistical and geospatial, which could be used inthe application of the principles. For the elevation ofthe Statistical Spatial Framework into a Global Statis-tical Geospatial Framework, strong global collabora-tion between the official statistical and official geospa-tial communities was essential. The Expert Groupmembers, and the application of the Statistical SpatialFramework to their national circumstances, demon-strated its applicability. A key cultural considerationwas the ability of the two professions to agree on prin-ciples, enabling the implementation of those principlesto be guided by national circumstances.

2.2. Geoscience Australia – Australia’s officialgeoscience agency

Geoscience Australia is Australia’s official geo-science agency (modern equivalent to national map-ping agency). Geoscience Australia applies geoscienceto Australia’s most important challenges by providinggeoscience information, services and capability to theAustralian Government, industry and stakeholders.

In 2009, a geospatial expert from Geoscience Aus-tralia was Chair of the UN Permanent Committee onGIS Infrastructure for Asia-Pacific and the UN Re-gional Cartographic Conference for Asia-Pacific, andwas directly involved in the journey of Member Statesdescribed earlier – the informal consultative meeting in2009, the three preparatory meetings held during 2009and 2010, the resolution to ECOSOC to bring togethergeospatial experts through a Global Geospatial Infor-mation Management initiative, and the inaugural meet-ing of the new UN Committee of Experts on GlobalGeospatial Information Management. With this expe-rience and background, the geospatial expert took upa role in the UN Statistics Division in March 2012 tocoordinate the subsequent meetings and technical sub-stantive agenda of the UN Committee of Experts. Un-


der the leadership of the then Director of the UN Statis-tics Division, Professor Paul Cheung, the geospatialexpert from Geoscience Australia ensured the GlobalGeospatial Information Management initiative madesignificant strides.

From the outset, Geoscience Australia has recog-nised the importance of global attention to importantgeoscience challenges. Geoscience Australia lead Aus-tralia’s delegation to the UN Committee of Expertson Global Geospatial Information Management, andhas been active and influential participants at Commit-tee meetings. Geoscience Australia have, in particular,recognised the benefits and need for a global geodeticreference system, and the role that a UN mandate canplay in achieving this. They have co-chaired a GlobalGeodetic Reference Frame Working Group which, inFebruary 2015, achieved the first ever geospatial reso-lution by the UN General Assembly – that of a GlobalGeodetic Reference Frame for Sustainable Develop-ment [14]. The resolution calls for greater multilateralcooperation on geodesy, including the open sharing ofgeospatial data, further capacity-building in develop-ing countries and the creation of international stan-dards and conventions.

Like the official statistical community, GeoscienceAustralia recognises the importance of standards forthe comparability and coherence of information, aswell as for efficiency and maximising technologi-cal integration. However, in comparison to the of-ficial statistical community, geoscience and geospa-tial standards are developed and endorsed not by theUN but by groups such as: Technical Committee211 of the International Organization for Standardiza-tion (ISO/TC211); the Open Geospatial Consortium(OGC), an international voluntary consensus standardsorganisation; the International Hydrographic Organi-zation (IHO); and the Intergovernmental Group onEarth Observations (GEO). Geoscience Australia sub-scribe to and participate in these groups on behalf ofAustralia.

The importance of standards and information mod-els has been identified by the Expert Group as crit-ical to ensuring the interoperability of statistical andgeospatial information, both to enhance integrationof data for analysis and to facilitate machine to ma-chine access and processing of these two types ofdata. Collaboration between the Geospatial standardsorganisations and the statistical organisations involvedin the statistical community’s statistical modernisationproject will be critical to ensuring this interoperability.It will also be vital to ensure the integration of geospa-tial capabilities in statistical business processes.

Geoscience Australia has been very supportive ofthe ABS’ efforts to progress the integration of statisti-cal and geospatial information. ABS join GeoscienceAustralia as part of Australia’s delegation to the UNCommittee of Experts on Global Geospatial Informa-tion Management. Of the ten issues under considera-tion by the UN Committee of Experts, the ABS leadsAustralia’s contribution to the topic on the integrationof statistical and geospatial information.

3. Developing national statistics includinggeospatial statistics, and the improvement oftheir comparability

The development of national statistics, and the im-provement of their comparability, is one of the fiveroles of the UN Statistical Commission aimed atachieving an integrated system in the collection, pro-cessing and dissemination of international statistics.The ABS recognised some time ago the need for andchallenge of better national geospatial statistics, andhas responded in a number of ways. In this section, wediscuss two recent improvements to Australia’s officialstatistics: grid-based statistics and Land Accounts.

3.1. Grid-based official statistics

Official statisticians collect, compile, analyse anddisseminate statistics. Our dissemination techniquesare diverse – from tables, through to media releases,twitter feeds, infographics, public-use files and choro-pleth maps.

Statistics disseminated through choropleth maps are,more often than not, based on geographic regions de-veloped and used by official statisticians. These ge-ographic regions often have their genesis in popula-tion censuses where the primary purpose of these re-gions is to support production and release of robustand high quality official population estimates. Alter-natively, these regions are derived from administrativegeographies developed for local government and ad-ministration purposes. The original purpose of theseregionalised population estimates are often to manageelectoral processes, such as determining electoral dis-tricts, and the distribution of taxes to state and provin-cial governments. These geographic regions are nowalso used to disseminate official statistics and data,across a wide range of socio-economic topics. They arealso used for information discovery applications thatallow users to navigate to and access data for their re-


gion of interest. Australia’s Data by Region [2] toolenables data to be discovered and accessed for geo-graphic regions of interest chosen by the user.

In contrast, the geospatial community not onlymakes use of traditional vector data – points, lines andpolygons, but also make use of large and often com-plex grids (known as raster grids) to disseminate mostof their earth science data, particularly environmentaldata. Such data, ranging from local to global in cover-age and scale, is captured by remote sensed or Earthobservations techniques, and is very large in volume,area and resolution. These grids are typically based ona square array, such as a 1 kilometre by 1 kilometregrid, or a 25 metre by 25 metre grid. Primarily, but notexclusively, acquired by satellites orbiting the Earth atvarious heights and repeat rates, the main purpose ofthese grids is to provide and monitor observations ofthe same piece of Earth over time. The position of thesquare array does not change – only what is observedwithin it, and when.

A very powerful way of demonstrating the inte-gration of statistical and geospatial information is tocompile, analyse and disseminate statistical informa-tion using the same dissemination unit as the geospa-tial community - grids. European and Nordic countrieshave been disseminating official statistics using gridsfor many years, particularly for the purpose of measur-ing and monitoring local or regional conditions suchas population density, commuting, urban sprawl, landuse, flood impacts and other related statistics. How-ever, it was not until the end of 2014 that Australiafirst produced official statistics based on a grid and it isworth noting, this came about due to a specific culturalenvironment within the ABS.

Since the early 1990s, the ABS has built and fos-tered a strong geospatial team who have developedstrong relationships with statistical teams within theorganisation. This has built an environment withinthe ABS that is capable of combining statistical dataand concepts with associated geospatial concepts. TheAustralian Population Grid [1] evolved in this envi-ronment and was developed and delivered by a teamof ABS geospatial experts. The team had to overcometechnical and cultural barriers to deliver the final prod-uct. Typical statistical issues, including confidential-ity, had to be addressed by encouraging official statis-ticians to look at these issues through a ‘how can itbe done’ lens. Statistical weighting methods were alsoapplied in concert with geospatial data to distributepopulation data to the grid. Working with dissemina-tion tools designed for statistical standards rather than

geospatial standards also required some creativity andnew dissemination approaches.

The Australian Population Grid incorporates popu-lation data from the 2011 Australian Census of Pop-ulation and Housing modelled to standard 1 km2 gridcells across Australia. This data has been modelledfrom confidentialised data for small geographic units,known as Mesh Blocks. Within each populated meshblock, all known or likely residential dwellings wereidentified using existing, geospatially enabled admin-istrative data sources. The vast majority (over 99.9%)of the points used to model the population grid weresourced from the Australian Geocoded National Ad-dress File (GNAF). The data was then distributedequally across these points and aggregated to the gridcells.

The knowledge of the geospatial experts working onthis project within the ABS was founded in a com-bination of experiences – multi-disciplinary academictraining, on the job work experience in both populationand environmental statistics, and for some individuals,an earlier career with Geoscience Australia.

3.2. Land accounts

Since 1993 the UN Statistical Commission hasplayed a significant role in elevating the System ofEnvironmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) to itsstatus as an international statistical standard. Withinthe SEEA there are many types of accounts, includ-ing water accounts, energy accounts and land accounts.Work continues on the development of standards forbiodiversity and ecosystem accounts.

Land accounts are a tool for integrating informa-tion about land and disseminating it in a statistical ac-counting format. Information about land is inherentlyof a geospatial nature, therefore land accounts are anexcellent example of the integration of statistical andgeospatial concepts. Land accounts integrate and dis-play information for a specific region or regions of in-terest, and track changes for land attributes includinguse, cover and value over time. Land parcels are of-ten chosen as the minimum geospatial building blockfor land accounts because they are a commonly avail-able source of administrative information relating toland. Earth observations, including satellite imagery,are also key sources of information about land and theABS has worked closely with Geoscience Australia toaccess remotely sensed land cover data for all of itsland accounts.

Australia first produced a trial land account for thecatchments of the Great Barrier Reef in 2011 [3].


This land account was developed with the support ofthe Queensland Government to demonstrate the con-cept of land accounting and the power of statisticaldata to inform policy decisions. The assistance of theQueensland Government in making their administra-tive database of land valuations available to the ABSwas crucial to the success of the land account. Infor-mation from the Land Account was used to inform de-bate and decision-making on a wide range of issues, in-cluding population settlement; land management; mea-suring the health of the environment; emergency man-agement and the sustainable production of goods andservices. The trial was a success and the ABS has ex-tended its production of land accounts to the States ofVictoria (2012) [7], Queensland (2013) [4] and SouthAustralia (2015) [5].

The ABS Land Account is designed to be an in-teractive publication and is best viewed online. Eachland account has introduced a new feature to supportits dissemination. Two examples are kml files for use inGoogle Earth, which enable users to interact with thedata geospatially, and the publication of grids of landvalue to enable further geospatial research into landbased issues and policy.

ABS is actively considering how to further extendthe use of geospatial and Earth observation data tofacilitate other environmental accounts; particularlythrough ecosystem accounts and water accounts. In ad-dition, active consideration is being given to how infor-mation from environmental accounts might integratewith other information on land use and managementfrom the ABS Agriculture Census and other agricul-tural collections.

3.3. Improving comparability

The production and dissemination of official statis-tics for grids and in land accounts are important stepstowards integrating statistical and geospatial informa-tion, but they focus on dissemination as the integrationpoint. Can integration be achieved earlier in the statis-tical production cycle?

The ABS and Geoscience Australia have com-menced a collaborative effort to bring together tradi-tional statistical data sources, specifically survey data,with traditional geospatial data sources, specificallyEarth observations data.

Geoscience Australia are leading a small consor-tium, including CSIRO and the National Computa-tional Infrastructure in the development of a newtechnology called the Australian Geoscience Data

Cube [8]. The Data Cube is significantly lowering thetechnical barriers to using Earth observation data, notjust within Australia but also internationally. The ABShas been trailing the use of the Earth observation datafor estimating crop yields since 2014 [9] and has com-menced trailing the use of the Earth observation datadirectly for official statistical purposes, such as envi-ronmental statistics – noting the ability for Earth obser-vation and geospatial data to monitor the environmentat high temporal and spatial resolutions.

Earth observation data within the Australian DataCube is compatible with the emerging Discrete GlobalGrid System standard under development within theOpen Geospatial Consortium. This Grid System couldalso be used to manage and integrate other datasources, not just Earth observation data. Geocodingtraditional statistical data sources such as census, sur-vey and administrative data, to an implementation ofthe Discrete Global Grid System is an option for ad-dressing the technical challenges of integrating statisti-cal and geospatial data in a flexible and integrated way.

There have been several trials by ABS of using theEarth observation data in the Australian GeoscienceData Cube. The first trial, commenced around 2014,was led by official statisticians applying their exper-tise, methodological tools, and experiences to the Earthobservations data as a new, big data source for officialstatistics. Specifically, acquiring the data held withinthe Data Cube and then applying traditional survey-based expertise and methods to a non-traditional sur-vey based data source (i.e. Earth observation data) [9].Further work to directly utilise these methods andEarth observation data in conjunction with unit recorddata from the ABS Agricultural Census is anticipatedto provide substantial enhancement to the frequencyand range of data on agricultural land use and produc-tion in the future.

A second trial has recently commenced taking a dif-ferent path; that of ABS statistical and geospatial ex-perts directly collaborating with Geoscience Australiageospatial experts to apply their combined knowledge,tools and experiences to the Earth observations datain much the same way that they used their expertiseto compile, analyse and disseminate grid-based officialstatistics. This project will explore use of the informa-tion in the Geoscience Data Cube using the NationalComputational Infrastructure to provide informationon land cover and soil exposure at a national level. Theprimary aim of the project is for ABS geospatial ex-perts, working with the more traditional official statis-ticians, to bridge the methodological gap between the


two professions. This approach proved successful inthe case of both the Population Grid and the Land Ac-counts, and we are hoping to replicate it with the newdata source, Earth observations, through this trial.

4. Advice to organs of the United Nations

One of the five roles of the UN Statistical Commis-sion aimed at achieving an integrated system in the col-lection, processing and dissemination of internationalstatistics is to provide advice to organs of the UnitedNations.

In September 2015, the UN General Assemblyadopted a new and ambitious development agendaknown as Transforming our World: The 2030 Agendafor Sustainable Development [15]. The 2030 Agendais the global policy to guide the way we collectivelymanage and transform the social, economic and envi-ronmental dimensions of humanity and our planet overthe next 15 years. It will be anchored by 17 SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and a globalindicator framework, in order to measure and monitorprogress. In this regard, the indicators will need to haveglobal integrity, be accessible and timely, and enablereliable disaggregation to help with the measurementof progress and ensure no one is left behind.

The 2030 Agenda calls for data and informationfrom existing reporting mechanisms to be used wherepossible. It also commits to develop broader measuresof progress to complement gross domestic product.

A commitment to the development of broader mea-sures of progress was originally made at the Rio+20summit, held in Brazil in 2012, twenty years after thefirst Earth Summit. The outcome document from thissummit, The Future We Want [13] recognised the needfor broader measures of progress to complement grossdomestic product in order to better inform policy de-cisions. The UN Statistical Commission, in consulta-tion with relevant United Nations system entities andother relevant organisations, was requested to launch aprogramme of work in this area, building on existinginitiatives.

A Friends of the Chair group on Broader Measuresof Progress was established that, among other things,was asked “to closely monitor the ongoing debate ondevelopment frameworks and to keep the Bureau of theStatistical Commission informed . . . in order to en-sure that a robust statistical measurement approach isincorporated from the outset in preparations for thepost-2015 development agenda” [13]. The Friends of

the Chair group closely monitored the ongoing dis-cussions and debates of the post-2015 DevelopmentAgenda throughout the period leading up to the 2030Agenda and endorsement of seventeen Sustainable De-velopment Goals and 169 targets.

During this period, the Friends of the Chair groupevolved into an Inter-agency and Expert Group onSDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs), composed of UNMember States and including regional and interna-tional agencies as observers. The IAEG-SDGs weretasked, in the 2030 Agenda [15], with providing a pro-posal for a global indicator framework, and associatedglobal and universal indicators, for consideration bythe UN Statistical Commission at its forty-seventh ses-sion in March 2016. It is expected that the UN Sta-tistical Commission proposal will be subsequently en-dorsed by ECOSOC and the UN General Assembly.

The 2030 Agenda specifically demands the need fornew data acquisition and integration approaches to im-prove the availability, quality, timeliness and disaggre-gation of data to support the implementation of the newdevelopment agenda at all levels – including to “ex-ploit the contribution to be made by a wide range ofdata, including earth observations and geospatial in-formation, while ensuring national ownership in sup-porting and tracking progress.” [15]. This need has agoal, target and date associated with it, as describedin Goal 17 in data, monitoring and accountability: “By2020, enhance capacity-building support to develop-ing countries, including for least developed countriesand small island developing States, to increase signif-icantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reli-able data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race,ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic loca-tion and other characteristics relevant in national con-texts.” [15].

Whilst the UN Statistical Commission was taskedwith developing a global indicator framework, withinAustralia it was recognised that the Sustainable Devel-opment Goals span all three dimensions of the sustain-able development agenda: economic, social and envi-ronmental, and that the indicator framework requiredownership from across the entire Australian Govern-ment and its agencies. The ABS therefore collaboratedwith the Australian Government Department of For-eign Affairs and Trade to bring together AustralianGovernment agencies to seek collaborative input intothe proposed indicator framework.

Geoscience Australia contributed extensively to theABS response to the proposed indicator framework.Geoscience Australia noted the contribution that can be


made by a wide range of data, in particular Earth obser-vation and geospatial information. These data sourcescould not only contribute to individual targets, suchas water management and deforestation, but also morebroadly to a global indicator framework that calls fordata and information from existing reporting mecha-nisms to be used where possible, and for disaggrega-tion by geographic location, amongst other things.

Culturally, ABS was committed to collaborationwith its partners in the wider Australian statistical sys-tem. Relationships that existed across the AustralianGovernment were called upon, often at short notice, tocontribute to the proposed global indicator framework.The ABS had to be open to new ideas and perspectivesfrom across the national statistical system, includingthe use of new data sources and innovations such as theuse of Earth observations data for official statistics.

ABS believes these collaborative and multi-discip-linary approaches must be adopted by other nationalstatistical offices as they modernise and transform ifthey wish to use new data sources in the production ofofficial statistics, especially with regard to the oppor-tunities provided by geospatial and Earth observationdata sources. Culturally, NSOs will need to look be-yond traditional statistical methodologies to the meth-ods and technologies used in other disciplines, such asthose used in the geospatial community, to make themost of these new data sources. This approach willalso require some investment, or collaborative use ofresources, in new technologies and methods. This willpose challenges for national statistical offices that havelimited or constrained budgets: regional collaborationhas been seen as a possible solution to some of theseproblems.

5. Promoting improvements to statistics andstatistics methods generally

A key role of the UN Statistical Commission isto promote improvements to statistics and statisticalmethods generally. Improving official statistics by in-tegrating statistical and geospatial information is oneof its current promotional activities. Coupled with thispromotional effort, and as noted earlier, is the need toensure statistical methods are relevant and accessiblefrom the perspective of geospatial information. Confi-dentiality is one of the statistical methods that vexesthe minds of many national statistical organisations asthey integrate statistical and geospatial information.

Confidentiality methods are widely known and ap-plied to traditional statistical offerings, such as tables

and public use files. Many of these tables and public-use files will have geographic regions as dimensions;such as statistics for a state or province, or a town orcouncil area. These geographic regions are often de-signed with population in mind, such as a minimumof 20 persons per square kilometre. Where these ge-ographic regions are used, confidentiality rules, suchas a minimum of five persons per output cell, are rel-atively easy to apply and embed in technological of-ferings, such as table generating software. When theoutput cell is a geographic region designed around anon-population based criteria (e.g. a ground water re-gion or a riparian zone, or a 25 by 25 metre grid) moreelaborate methods of managing confidentiality must beapplied, such as perturbation.

Several countries are tackling this challenge includ-ing Australia, Italy, USA and the UK. In time, the expe-riences and expertise of these countries will be drawnupon by the Expert Group on the Integration of Statis-tical and Geospatial Information through a dedicatedstream of work that will propose a set of guidelinesfor countries to adopt. A key focus of countries andthe Expert Group will be to ensure that the confiden-tiality methods can be as automated as possible. Man-ual checking methods, which are both costly and timeconsuming, are to be avoided or minimised as much aspossible.

Data standards is a key area where more work is re-quired and some work in this area is already underway.The cultural issue here is as much about professionalparadigms as it is about standards. As noted earlier,the official statistical community has over fifty years ofgovernance by the peak, international statistical stan-dards body, the UN Statistical Commission. Withinthe geospatial community the private sector has ledthe application of many new approaches (i.e. googlemaps, ESRI, Digital Globe). Therefore, the engage-ment of geospatial standards bodies, such as the ISOand OGC, that encompass both private and public sec-tor, is critical in ensuring globally applicable standards.The Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical andGeospatial Information is confronting this cultural dif-ference as it works through its work program, and isputting in place mechanisms to help address these dif-ferences, including the Expert Group itself.

Within the statistical community the elements withCommon Statistical Production Architecture, being de-veloped by the UNECE High Level Group for Statisti-cal Modernisation, is expected to provide greater con-sistency through the use and harmonisation of stan-dards. This harmonisation will allow better integration


between statistical business process, data management,metadata and infrastructure. National organisations,such as the ABS and Statistics Finland, have identi-fied challenges within this architecture from a geospa-tial perspective. Internationally, the Expert Group hasidentified that enhancing data interoperability betweenthe statistical and geospatial communities will requireeffective mechanisms to incorporate geospatial data,and effective links to existing geospatial standardswithin this architecture and the statistical standardsthat it incorporates.

By working together, the official statisticians aresharing knowledge and skills with geospatial expertsabout the importance of confidentiality to the trust andintegrity of official statistics, and how our standardsand information models work. In return, geospatial ex-perts are sharing their knowledge and skills of ap-proaches and methods to confidentiality that can be ap-plied to geospatial data sources, such as Earth obser-vations, and geospatial dissemination methods, suchas grids and surface models. They are also sharingtheir experience of developing and implementing mod-ern approaches to standards. This is a truly interdisci-plinary approach to official statistics.

6. Key lessons learnt and suggestions for ongoingimprovement

This paper has traversed the journey, so far, of twocommunities uniting together to integrate statisticaland geospatial information to enrich and empowercountries to better measure the progress of their soci-eties and economies, to unleash the power of statistics,and to help measure and monitor the Sustainable De-velopment Goals.

Key to this journey has been a willingness and de-sire to cooperate, and this is now being replicated inother countries, driven in some way by both willing-ness and need. For example, while the development ofthe global indicator framework has largely been a sta-tistical data approach, based on the similar history ofthe Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the needfor ‘geographic location’ in a new era of data needsis well recognised. The statistical community is begin-ning to understand more clearly that geospatial infor-mation and Earth observations are able to provide newand consistent data sources and methodologies to in-tegrate multiple ‘location-based’ variables to supportand inform official statistics and the indicators for theSDGs. These methods are able to fill data gaps and/or

improve the temporal and spatial resolutions of data,by bringing together information from various sources,particularly those related to the environment.

The ABS has recently released a new strategic En-gagement Plan based on three engagement principles:nurture, understand and collaborate. These principlestarget three outcomes: shared benefit through open re-lationships that recognise others play a significant rolein Australia’s statistical system; shared vision by com-mitting ABS to understanding the current and futurepolicy landscape, and the pressures, priorities and painpoints of stakeholders; and shared solutions by com-mitting ABS to work together with partners in purpose-ful ways to inform discussions and decisions, and im-prove Australia’s statistical system.

The relationship between Australia’s official statis-ticians and geoscience experts adopt these three prin-ciples. The relationship between the ABS and Geo-science Australia is open and nurtured personally andprofessionally, such as through our joint representationon the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospa-tial Information Management. We listen and seek tounderstand the pressures, priorities and pain points ofour two communities and institutions. For instance, theChief Executive Officer of Geoscience Australia wasthe guest speaker at an inaugural ABS TransformationShowcase event, sharing Geoscience Australia’s expe-riences with their institutional transformation as ABSembarks on its own institutional transformation. Andfinally, we are sharing solutions through many collab-orative efforts underway, especially those aimed at in-tegrating statistical and geospatial information.

Having the UN Statistics Division as Secretariat forthe two highest governing bodies, the UN StatisticalCommission and the UN Committee of Experts onGlobal Geospatial Information Management, augerswell for addressing the challenge of standards and therange of other challenges to be overcome in enhancingthe integration of statistical and geospatial information.

Acknowledgements

The Authors wish to acknowledge the contributionsof many official statisticians and geospatial expertsworking within the Australian Bureau of Statistics whohave contributed to this paper. The views expressed inthis paper are those of the authors and do not necessar-ily represent those of their institutions.


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Attachment A: Statistical spatial framework

Australia’s Statistical Spatial Framework is a framework to enhance decision making by using location in acommon way to allow seamless integration of administrative, statistical and geospatial information resources. Thefollowing diagram outlines the vision, goals and principles embedded within the framework, and the outcomes itwill achieve.

IOS Press Integrating statistical and geospatial information, …ggim.un.org/documents/sji-32-sji1018.pdf · 2017-11-28 · Statistical Journal of the IAOS 32 (2016) 457–470 457

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