Global Fundamental Geospatial Data Themes

The GIS Guide to Public Domain data book and this blog have touched on many data themes since we started this effort in 2012. What are the core data themes needed to achieve a more sustainable Earth? The Global Fundamental Geospatial Data Themes mentioned below are one attempt to list these; they number 14 in total, from Geographic Names, Addresses to Land Cover and Imagery. This story map takes the reader through the themes and demonstrate what they are, how they can be used, and why they are fundamental:

Global Fundamental Geospatial Data Themes according to the UN.

Consistent with the theme of this data blog, the reader should immediately ask several questions when reading statements such as the above, beginning with “Who says these are the most important themes?” The story map fortunately gives this type of metadata: The United Nation’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) established the Committee of Experts as the apex intergovernmental mechanism for making joint decisions and setting directions with regard to the production, availability and use of geospatial information within national, regional and global policy frameworks. Led by United Nations Member States, This organization, the UN-GGIM (UN Global Geospatial Information Management) integrates aims to address global challenges regarding the use of geospatial information, including in the development agendas, and to serve as a body for global policymaking in the field of geospatial information management.

The story map wisely states that “Implementing the themes will necessitate the integration of information from National Mapping Agencies, National Statistical Offices and other institutions to produce standardised, fundamental data, for use within member states, and also, to support initiatives such as the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.” Indeed.

Use the story map listed above to explore the themes and why they matter. Use it also to discuss with students or colleagues what some of the challenges are that are inherent in gathering any of the 14 themes consistently and at sufficient resolution for them to be useful in achieving such aims as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Use this Spatial Reserves data blog to identify and access sources for each of these themes. Over the past decade, this blog has touched on each of these 14 themes.

–Joseph Kerski

WorldPop: Global spatial demographic data

Way back in Oct 2012 I wrote about some of the resources that were available at the time to provide access to detailed and freely available population distribution maps for Asia, Africa, and the Americas (Free population distribution data for Asia and Africa).

Since then a new research programme, WorldPop, has been established at the University of Southampton in the UK to combine and develop the AfriPop, AsiaPop, and AmeriPop projects into one global resource for detailed population distribution and characteristics data.

The WorldPop site provides access to over 44,700 datasets in a variety of categories including Global Settlement Growth, Population Density, and Migration Flows. All datasets are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Internal Migration Flow – Africa

In addition to the datasets, a number of plugins are available for downloading and manipulating the data, and the published WorldPop REST API returns data/metadata in JSON format.

Teaching and learning about geo-ethics with the Geoprivacy video series

Recently at a GIS conference I had the honor of meeting Colorado Mountain College GIS professor Dr Dara Seidl. Dr Seidl’s work I believe will have great interest to the readers of this blog, as much of it centers around geospatial data and societal issues. Dr Seidl recently completed a yearlong fellowship with the American Geographical Society, to study privacy issues. Her findings are featured in an eight-part series of short educational videos, the Geoprivacy Series. These engaging videos are accompanied by guidelines for educators to help them fully use each video in instructional settings. Each set of guidelines contains a link to the video, a summary of the video, activities, guiding points for class discussions, and article links for digging deeper into the issue. But I would argue that these resources are so well done and so relevant to everyday life that they should be viewed by everyone, not just instructors and students.

Topics covered in these resources include the potential to falsely identify crime suspects to using GPS data to track shopping and dining habits of private citizens, smart energy and tracking, a bicycle theft from a social media ad for that bicycle, and personal disturbing text messages based on location. I found them all to be personal and disturbing, but relevant and important to discuss.

One of these intriguing videos features a mock interview with a “repo man,” an employee for a vehicle
repossession company, talking about his use of automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology. The interviewee discusses how the ALPR camera system on his “spotter car” continuously collects license plate data, along with location, time, date, and photographs of all cars along his daily driving routes. He notes
that he specifically targets certain parking lots and apartment complexes, and his company sells all the license plate location data to police, banks, and insurance companies. In the educator guidelines accompanying this video, Dr Seidl suggests several intriguing activities, such as identifying and mapping nearby surveillance cameras and filing a FOIA request. The discussion points begin with a series of intriguing questions, such as: “Does ALPR lead to uneven surveillance between groups? If so, which groups of people are more likely to be surveilled? Is it fair to target certain neighborhoods or parking lots with ALPR, as the “repo man” in this video claims to do? Should companies be legally allowed to
collect license plate locations and pictures? Is it fair to use systematic location surveillance to fight fraud?
The “repo man” in this video claims that using mobile ALPR cameras is just like walking down the street recording plates with a pen and paper. Is this a valid claim?”

Dr Seidl’s approach to these issues closely aligns with our own here on Spatial Reserves: That these issues are too important not to be taught, and that they can be taught in engaging ways with real-world scenarios and with hands-on activities.

I highly encourage you to not only view these resources, but to use these in your own instruction and in your conversations with colleagues and stakeholders.

Dr Dara Seidl, right, along with 2 snippets from her GeoPrivacy educational resources.

—Joseph Kerski