GIS Metadata Processing for Small Island Developing States

Details

Mission and objectives

UNDP has a long-standing partnership with Small Island Developing States?(SIDS), with an estimated annual value of US$300m, supporting SIDS to advance national development priorities and respond to diverse challenges and opportunities.?UNDP’s?upgraded SIDS offer responds to their most pressing needs as well as greatest opportunities for accelerating sustainable development. Building on multipliers that promise to accelerate progress across the SDGs, and building on?UNDP’s?comparative advantage and specific expertise, UNDP is expanding its support in: Climate Action, developing Blue Economies and promoting Digital Transformation.

Context

The UNDP Data Platform for Small Island Developing States is a freely available digital tool for accelerating development in SIDS by providing policymakers, research institutions, country offices, and development partners with access to updated, standardized, and comprehensive data. There are three main types of data within the SIDS data platform, including country-level indicators, geospatial data, and data on the UNDP portfolio of projects and investment across the SAMOA Pathway priorities and SDGs. The indicator database of over 4000 country-level indicators is compiled from 22 databases and research studies and presented alongside analytic tools, country profiles, and through a customizable Multidimensional Vulnerability Index. The GIS portal features over 80 research studies and databases, with visualization and analytic tools to allow development agents to been able to discover, access, and export this data. For each data type, custom interfaces have been developed to visualize, analyze, and export these data, all available in four languages. Additionally, machine learning models have been developed to allow socio-economic and environmental analyses through interactive interfaces for testing modeling approaches for filling in gaps in databases. The SIDS Data Platform was identified as a priority In a UN Resolution adopted during the 77th session of the UNGA on the follow-up to and implementation of the SAMOPA Pathway and the Mauritius Strategy, which “Recognizes that improved data collection and statistical analysis are required to enable SIDS to effectively plan, follow up on, evaluate and track the implementation and achievement of the 2030 Agenda, including its SDGs, and other internationally agreed development goals, and in this regard recalls the adoption and finalization of the monitoring framework for the SAMOA Pathway, further encourages small island developing States to utilize the framework for reporting ahead of the fourth International Conference on SIDS, reiterates the call for meaningful partnerships with SIDS to assist with strengthening their statistical offices and to provide enhanced support in developing national capacities for improved data collection and statistical analysis, including high-quality and disaggregated data, welcomes the launch of the Data Platform for the SIDS by UNDP.”

Task description

As part of the new SIDS Data Platform - data.undp.org/sids - the SIDS geospatial portal features a large database compiled from 80 sources of GIS data to create a comprehensive data visualization and analysis platform. We have completed a large part of the database, but need help in refining some of the metadata processed for each dataset. This task will involve refining the metadata for each dataset, as well as updating some of the processing scripts used in the data pipeline to transform the metadata into a usable data product to interact with the GIS frontend. Required skills include ability to manipulate data using Python and Pandas, and ability to open maps in QGIS or another GIS viewer and extract some basic information from them in their documentation. The task is intended to be complete by the end of June for the completed GIS database.