6 minute read
Role of Demography and Statistics in City Planning
Good city planning needs to be backed with very detailed economic, social, demographic, and environmental data to support all of the important decisions that need to be taken, says, Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the United Nations Statistics Division and the UN-GGIM Global Secretariat, in an interview with
Geospatial World.
What is the Role of Statistics in Urban Planning? Statistics is absolutely critical in urban planning because we are surrounded by numbers. And at the local level, they offer the best opportunity of integrating different statistical information. Most of the statistical information is collected at the local level because surveys and censuses are done at the local level, which is why it is easiest to see and understand the need for the integration of information.
What roadmap should cities adopt for a precise database actionable approach? At the city level, you have the same challenges that are there at the national level. There’s a need to bring different players together
Demography has always been been the first contact point for geospatial information because census cartography has always existed. The first marriage or encounter between statistics and geospatial information was via visualization
for integrated information and information-based decisions. For instance, traffic planning will have many repercussions on the local economy, and on local access to social services, education and health.
Proper city planning has to be backed by very detailed economic, social, demographic, and environmental data to support all important planning decisions that have to be taken.
Perhaps the clearest way to see that is at the city level where you can really see the immediate connection between the various dimensions.
Demography is at the heart of all city projects, and for that, we need accurate information. How do you view statistics geospatially for a sustainable future? Demography has always been the first contact point for geospatial information because census cartography has always existed.
In order to conduct the census, which is the most basic demographic data operation, we need good cartographic and geospatial information.
Nowadays, all of the information that is collected is geocoded. In the future, it will provide us with a whole new wealth of opportunities on how we can identify social and economic needs at the decision-making level, including the local municipality level.
What are the major challenges associated with the evolution of roles and mandates of national geospatial agencies? I think one of the key challenges which many national geospatial institutions will tell you, is resources.
Many are struggling with these challenges and demands that are put before them. We need to invest in good geospatial infrastructure and data systems at the national level because it gives us a better understanding of where we are and where we are going. This will bring returns to investment and help us to put our money, our skills, resources, where they are most effective.
How can IGIF make cities more human-centric, inclusive, and help people check on emissions? I think the IGIF is first and foremost a national-level concept. Though of course, the fundamental idea of planning, identifying the policy information needs, what are the priorities, and then bringing different types of information and different stakeholders that have different information together.
It is an important philosophy that can also be executed at the city level. This is actually an interesting idea, whether we could implement a program, an IGIF program at the city level.
There are certainly some cities, especially in India, that are bigger than many other countries, which is why we need to take the same philosophical approach, and we can probably take that to the city level. It would be a very interesting experiment.
How does location data help in more interactive visualization of statistical data so that it can be easily comprehended by all stakeholders? The first marriage or encounter between statistics and geospatial information was via visualization, because of course, statistics are normally presented in tables, rows and columns, and that is not necessarily very appealing. However using geospatial visualization tools makes it much easier to communicate the key messages that are contained in the numbers and in the data.
Fundamentally, the marriage between statistics and geospatial information goes way beyond visualization. I think we need to understand what is the content and the knowledge that is contained in both the geospatial information and the data.
And if they are fully integrated, I think it will give us a better understanding of the reality that data and geospatial information are mapping.
In many countries, we have the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework, (IGIF) that is to be translated into a specific action plan, which would require that all the stakeholders are identified and become a part in an ongoing dialogue
Are you currently working on any project, with any country? We have launched a sustainable development goals (SDG) data alliance with a number of partners, and we are trying to implement that in 20 countries with the objective to create SDG data hubs. These SDGs are the highest policy priority of the United Nations, so assisting countries, and in this case 20 pilot countries, to put SDG data hubs together to implement the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework at the country level, that's one of our most exciting tasks at this moment.
With the increasing adoption of geospatial technology and data across sectors, how can any agency keep track of the evolving demands and requirements of the users? Communication, communication, communication. I think there has to be a very intensive user-producer dialogue at all stages so that the users understand what can be produced and what can be done, and what is also efficient.
Because good, reliable and sustainable data and information are costly, high-quality information is costly. So the users need to understand that they cannot just present an endless list of demands, but there has to be a dialogue between the producers and the users of what are the priorities and what can and what must be produced first.
How does the agency engage or collaborate with users or other geospatial technology or data providers to develop a betterunderstanding of the user’s evolving demands and new use cases? I would definitely hope so and we are trying to make this happen. And in many countries, we have this Integrated Geospatial Information Framework, (IGIF) that is to be translated at the country level into a specific action plan. And that would require that all the stakeholders are identified and brought together in an ongoing dialogue on how the geospatial information framework in the country is shaped.
We definitely advocate that very strongly at the national level and at the global level, we are trying to make it happen through our architecture because we have the Global Committee on Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), which has many sectoral working groups and networks, the private sector network, the academic network, the united international organization's network, and the international associations' network. We are trying at the global level to bring all of these players together in a continuous dialogue.
Interviewed by: Nibedita Mohanta
