There are several key ways to enhance the value of data in SIDS as they continue to emerge as leaders of the data revolution in 2022. A few areas of specific focus include to:
Foundational data infrastructure is crucial is enabling access to, analysis of, and sharing of data and innovations between and within SIDS. This includes national open data portals like those of Jamaica and Papua New Guinea, spatial data infrastructures, and data communities. Each of these play an essential role in making all other data innovations possible. The latter is particularly important, with a data community in SIDS made possible through the provision of digital tools, open data, capacity-building workshops, training curriculums, and finance mechanisms necessary to develop capacity of local research and innovation institutions. Support in growing local capacity of national statistical offices and bureaux will be essential to allow data to be integrated into policymaking and enable integrated analyses of vulnerabilities and the methods we can use to address them.
One key area is the marine data sphere, which is currently seeing enormous innovations in data collection, ranging from underwater or surface vehicles to collect data at depths and resolution considered impossible only years ago, to constellations of satellites collecting environmental and bathymetric data essential to mapping both the oceans and coastal regions for vulnerability and development potential analysis. Innovations in cloud technologies and machine learning and analytic techniques offer enormous potential for making this possible, but they must be matched by local technical capacity building as well as a larger analysis of the threats and challenges that accompany any endeavor in artificial intelligence.
As geospatial data continues to improve in resolution, accuracy, coverage, and access, it has become an increasingly central part of policymaking and the development agenda. To support this integration of geographic information systems into governance in SIDS it is necessary to support Marine Spatial Data Infrastructures (MSDIs). National MSDIs can support the collection and use of a wide variety of data in SIDS related to bathymetry, geology, blue economy infrastructure, marine ecosystems and climate, and oceanography. This can also act as a foundation for national response systems to support recovery efforts and respond to natural disasters, for both government agencies and the broader community to assess risks, effectively allocate resources, and support awareness initiatives. But for all this data to be actionable, it needs to be comprehensive and accurate. There is a need to close essential data gaps to make modeling efforts more accurate and relevant in SIDS.
Open data is a catalyst for digital economy in SIDS, with open data standards in particular playing a crucial role in helping solve the economic, technical, and legal obstacles for allowing data to become more accessible and valuable in the hands of the data community. But, open data needs to be developed in parallel with legislation that insures data privacy and security can protect the rights of individuals. To advance data governance, it will be necessary to conduct capacity mapping efforts on research and innovation infrastructure, institutional and governmental capacities, and data openness and availability in SIDS. Community mapping is one example of an efficient way to strengthen open data infrastructures as well as provide local information on demography, ecosystem services, and essential infrastructure. For geospatial modeling, SIDS often face challenges because of their diverse geographies concentrated in close proximity, with a scarcity baseline information necessary for training or validating models and research studies. Thus, SIDS are often left out of global modeling efforts, or the generated data requires further verification before it can be integrated into policy-making systems.
Within UNDP we are working on a unified Geohub to act as a spatial architecture for GIS studies and digital tools, including a comprehensive and standardized geospatial database alongside a set of analytic tools designed specifically for SIDS. By focusing on addressing the limitations and constraints for climate adaptation in SIDS, data-driven studies can show the areas and sectors with the greatest impact. A recent study mapping global development potential in renewable energy, agriculture, and natural resources shows the geographic distribution of energy sources with greatest possibility for SIDS. Data has shown that SIDS are also key holders of dense irrecoverable carbon ecosystems including mangroves, seagrasses and tidal wetlands, essential for protection of local social and ecological systems as well as the global climate system. A study mapping the global potential for marine aquaculture found vast areas to exist in nearly every coastal country suitable for aquaculture, far exceeding global foreseeable seafood demand; the current total landings of all wild-capture fisheries would require only about 0.05% of the ocean within the EEZs of SIDS. Also, since most SIDS are highly dependent on food imports with half of SIDS importing more than 80% of their food, this represents significant potential to leverage their oceanic power in the global seafood industry that has quadrupled over the past 50 years.
Read more in the SIDS Bulletin Special Edition - SIDS in 2022 and Beyond
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