Regional Interaction of Environmental, Social and Economic Statistics: An Outline of the Issues

1. Regional Interaction of Environmental, Social and Economic Statistics: An Outline of the Issues Wendy Thomas wlt@umn.edu Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota IAOS 2010 Santiago, Chile 20 October 2010

2. Basic Issues • Local level variability of the pattern of population and economic growth, population profiles and density change • Data availability and access • Data comparbility • Consistent indicators • Intellectual and techical cooperation

3. Data Availability and Access • Confidentiality protection: As the area gets smaller the level and availability of detail in the data decreases • The use of suppression rather than imputation for small area data • Reliance on aggregate data for small areas • Published only for nation or large areas • Motor vehicle ownership: "Data are only available for OED countries at the national scale (supplied by OED), while on the global scale only major urban areas for each country are available”

4. Example of Limiting Availability http://www.bls.gov/eag/abouteag.htm[9/27/2010 12:08:59 PM]

5. Data Comparability • Living below poverty: “Comparisons between countries can be difficult because of different definitions and standards….” • Arable land: “Definitions used by reporting countries vary considerably and items classified under the same category often relate to greatly differing kinds of land.” • Urban Population: "Each country sets it own definitions of an "urban agglomeration“, there is therefore a wide range of definitions making data comparability difficult….” TEMS / Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites (http://www.fao.org/gtos/tems/socioeco_list.jsp#)

6. Consistent Indicators • Forest total area: "..., FAO estimates sometimes are not based on temporal series but are calculated by using different methods, such as the so-called "convergence of evidence". however, this leads to decreased reliability of the data.” • Population Density: "Conceptually, population density alone is not fully representative of population pressure, as the environmental impact of population always depends on the type and level of development, the type of habitat, and so on." TEMS / Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites (http://www.fao.org/gtos/tems/socioeco_list.jsp#)

10. Cooperation • Metadata standards for micro and statistical data (DDI, SDMX, ISO/IEC 11179, ISO 19115) • Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) • Paris Microdata Access Workshop • IPUMS International • IHSN • Community Indicators Consortium

11. Goals for small area data • Develop model based, informative, reliable and flexible indicators using data available at the local level • Continue to expand use of standards for interoperable metadata and data • Support multiple means of access to data • Publish consistent small area data that supports local and cross-national research

12. Session Presentations • Visualization tools • Exploring the interaction of data within a spatial perspective • Empowering actors and agents from all sectors of urban development • Using indicators with spatial dimension (distance from services, etc.) to inform redistribution of population profiles • Measuring the impact of changing population profiles on different area types