FAO at the 8th International Conference on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics
Hybrid Event, 10/06/2024 - 14/06/2024
FAO is joining the 8th International Conference on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics organized by the Basque Centre for Climate Change, INE Spain and the United Nations Statistics Division in Bilbao, from 10 to 14 June.
As the world grapples with numerous global challenges, including environmental issues, climate change, health crises, food insecurity, economic recovery, and human displacement, the need for knowledge integration has never been more critical. Amid a data landscape with fast-increasing volumes of data, information remains compartmentalised to pre-defined scales and fields, rarely building its way up to collective knowledge. The statistical community, the data science community, the geospatial community and the modelling community are tasked with delivering this integrated knowledge, to shed light on the ongoing “wicked problems”—intertwined, multistakeholder and with potential solutions dependent on subjective, competing interests.
The purpose of the conference is to address and share knowledge on these emerging issues that require the timely and flexible production of integrated scientific, statistical and geospatial information. This involves collaboration with strategic partners from the public and private sectors, as well as from academic and research institutes, and needs a paradigm shift that will favour open synthesis to contribute and reuse knowledge and apply it toward decision making. The conference will consist of a ministerial opening, high-level panels, technical sessions as well as a several workshops. The overall theme of the conference is “Informing Climate Change and Sustainable Development policies with integrated data”.
FAO participation at the 8th International Conference on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics
Knowledge commons for Global Sustainability Challenges | Tuesday, 11 June 2024 (9:00 AM – 12:15 PM, Room 3)
In today's digital age, ensuring that knowledge is accessible for common use and societal benefit is paramount. This involves making information freely available and shared among individuals, organizations, or society as a whole, with a focus on fostering cross-domain collaboration, innovation, and effective problem-solving. This session underscores the significance of data accessibility and interoperability in realizing the potential of knowledge commons for addressing global sustainability challenges. Presentations will highlight how interoperability standards, coupled with investments in modern data infrastructure, establish the foundation for collaborative data spaces, involving both public and private entities. Furthermore, the session will explore how governance mechanisms and ethical considerations play a crucial role in ensuring responsible data use and co-ownership within knowledge commons. Discussions will extend to examining how the global statistical community can leverage knowledge commons through initiatives like the UN Global Platform for Official Statistics, the UN Data Commons project, and the ARIES for SEEA initiative. The session will culminate in a panel discussion featuring experts sharing their insights on the future trajectory of disseminating integrated information within the context of knowledge commons. More detailed information.
| AGENDA | |
Part 1 – Creating knowledge commons | |
| 09:00 – 09:05 | Introduction |
| 09:05 – 09:20 | Building the basic data interoperability infrastructure for the knowledge commons: Example of CALIPER – presentation by Carola Fabi (FAO) |
| 09:20 – 09:35 | Common European Data Spaces – presentation by Barteld Braaksma (Statistics Netherlands) |
| 09:35 – 09:50 | Spanish Green Data Space – presentation by Alvaro Ortiz (BBVA Research) |
| 09:50 – 09:05 | Google’s Open-Source Project Data Commons – presentation by R.V. Guha (Google) |
| 10:05 – 10:15 | Q & A |
| 10:15 – 10:30 | Coffee break |
Part 2 – Leveraging knowledge commons in the global statistical community | |
| 10:30 – 10:40 | The UN Global Platform for Official Statistics – presentations by Ashwell Jenneker (Statistics South Africa) |
| 10:40 –10:40 | UN Data Commons – presentation by Luis Gonzalez (UNSD) |
| 10:50 – 11:00 | ARIES for SEEA – presentation by Ferdinando Villa (BC3) |
| 11:00 – 11:10 | Q & A |
Part 3 – Future of knowledge commons | |
| 11:10 – 11:20 | Mentimeter – polling questions |
| 11:20 – 12:15 | Panel discussion – Moderator: Haishan Fu, World Bank Mr. Ashwell Jenneker, Statistics South Africa Mr. R. V. Guha, Data Commons, Google.org Mr. Ferdinando Villa, Basque Center for Climate Change Mr. Luis Gonzalez, UNSD Ms. Carola Fabi, FAO Mr. Yves Jaques, UNICEF |
Integrated modelling for ecosystem extent mapping and ecosystem services | Thursday, 13 June 2024 (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM Room 5A)
The session will aim to present various initiatives on developing ecosystem extent maps and models for ecosystem services and discuss how these initiatives and tools can be used to support the compilation of SEEA ecosystem accounts and facilitate the reporting under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), through focusing on indicators A.2 “Extent of natural ecosystems” and B.1 “Services provided by ecosystems.” This session will also discuss the importance of interoperability for these initiatives in order to leverage on them, maximize their benefits and develop accounts-ready data to support compilation of SEEA accounts and reporting under the GBF indicators. The session will be organized in three parts: the first one focusing on ecosystem maps, the second one on ecosystem services modelling, and the third one on the interoperability of data, maps and models.
| AGENDA | |
Part 1 – Developing ecosystem maps (Chair: Marko Javorsek, UNSD) | |
| 09:00 – 09:10 | Ecosystem maps for SEEA Ecosystem Accounting and reporting under the Global Biodiversity Framework (Ilaria Di Matteo, UNSD) |
| 09:10 – 09:20 | The importance of IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology for ecosystem accounting and the Red List of Ecosystems (Konstantin Gospodinov, IUCN) |
| 09:20 – 09:30 | Development of a global ecosystem map by the GeoAtlas initiative (Madeeha Bajwa, GEO Secretariat) |
| 09:30 – 10:00 | Reflections on data production to inform biodiversity policies and reporting to international initiatives, including country perspectives Panel discussionModerator: Marko Javorsek, UNSD Panelists: Mr Madeeha Bajwa, GEO Secretariat Mr. Marc Paganini, ESA Mr. Lorenzo De Simone, FAO |
| Part 2 – Modelling of ecosystem services (Chair: Ilaria Di Matteo, UNSD) | |
| 10:00 – 10:10 | Accounting for ecosystem services for SEEA Ecosystem Accounting and reporting under the Global Biodiversity Framework (Marko Javorsek, UNSD) |
| 10:10 – 10:20 | Local to global continuum for the modelling of ecosystem services (Stefano Balbi, BC3) |
| 10:20 – 10:30 | Example of modeling ecosystem services in the European Union context (Marialuisa Tamborra, JRC) |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Coffee break |
| How can ecosystem service models meet the needs of global monitoring and accounting | |
| 10:45 – 11:15 | Panel discussion Moderator: Ms. Ilaria Di Matteo, UNSD Panelists: Mr. Alessio Bulckaen, BC3 Ms. Marialuisa Tamborra, JRC Mr. Marcel Buchorn, VITO |
| Part 3 – Interoperability of data, maps and models for ecosystem accounting (Chair: Marc Paganini, ESA) | |
| 11:15 – 11:30 | An interoperability strategy for the next generation of SEEA accounting (Ken Bagstad, USGS by video) |
| What are the main challenges to the interoperability of data and models for ecosystem accounting and reporting the GBF indicators | |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Panel discussion |
How the UN Regional and Global Hubs on Big Data and Data Science support climate change statistics, biodiversity, and sustainable tourism | Session 2 – Thursday 13 June & Friday 14 June
The UN Task Team on Training, Competencies and Capacity Development will bring key members of the UN Regional and Global Hubs, including the new IMF Big Data Center, into a workshop setting for 1.5 days of discussions and workshops.
Objectives:
- Encourage rapport building between UN Regional and Global Hubs’ members, enabling knowledge exchange, peer appraisal and peer support to be offered.
- Present on areas for knowledge exchange that will support the Hubs’ regional “offer”, including some of the tools from the UN Task Team on Training, Competencies and Capacity Development.
- Discuss the current challenges being faced, and support the removal of blockers.
- Enable discussions that support the delivery of current and future UN Regional and Global Hub’s priorities and which facilitate 2024/2025 (and beyond) planning.
- Enable discussions between Regional Hubs, Global Hubs, Big Data Hub and Task Teams, facilitating stronger working relationships and practices that support Hubs’ delivery.
Proposed activities:
| AGENDA |
Thursday 13 June; Afternoon Facilitators: Ceri Regan & Ralf Becker |
Discussion Points
Presentations – what is the offer from Task Teams?
|
Friday 14 June; Morning Facilitators: Ceri Regan & Ralf Becker |
Discussion & Action Planning
UN Big Data Catalogue |
Friday 14 June; Afternoon: Facilitators: Derek Azar, Ceri Regan & Ralf Becker |
UN Products and Tools: UN Maturity Matrix Assessment – hands on
|