Evaluating the role of partnerships in increasing the use of big Earth data to support the Sustainable Development Goals: an Australian perspective

Figures & data

Figure 1. Three principles for development in the 21^st Century (Desha et al., 2017)

Figure 2. An illustration of the data integration problem facing decision-makers globally including location as the link between society, the economy and the environment. Source: Figure 1 in UN (2019)

Table 1. Targets within SDG-17 with potential geospatial contribution through the listed indicators. Source: Adapted from Anderson et al. (2017) and the Australian Government (n.d.)

SDG/Target	Relevant indicators and description	Examples of big Earth data connection
Technology (3 Targets in total)
SDG-17-6 (2 indicators)	Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism.
	Indicator 17-6-1: (* N/a) Number of science and/or technology cooperation agreements and programmes between countries.	Geolocated summary of agreements
	Indicator 17-6-2: (Reported online) Fixed Internet broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.	Map of subscription density
SDG-17-7 (1 indicator)	Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms.
	Indicator 17-7-1: (* N/a) Total amount of approved funding for developing countries to promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies.	Map of approved funding with project information
SDG-17-8 (1 indicator)	Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology.
	Indicator 17-8-1: (Reported online) Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries, in particular information and communications technology.	Map of progress towards fully operationalized capacity building
Capacity building (1 target in total)
SDG-17-9 (1 indicator)	Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation.
	Indicator 17-9-1: (Reported online) Dollar value of financial and technical assistance committed to developing countries.	Map of assistance dollars with details
Systemic issues – Policy and institutional coherence (3 targets in total)
SDG-17-14 (1 indicator)	Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development.
	Indicator 17–14-1: (* N/a) Number of countries with mechanisms in place to enhance policy coherence of sustainable development.	Presence/absence map of policy mech.
Systemic issues – Multi-stakeholder partnerships (2 targets in total) **
SDG-17-16 (1 indicator)	Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries.
	Indicator 17–16-1: (Reported online) Number of countries reporting progress in multi-stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks.	Map of reporting countries
SDG-17-17 (1 indicator)	Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.
	Indicator 17–17-1: (N/A*) Amount of United States dollars committed to (a) public-private partnerships and (b) civil society partnerships.	Map per country of (a) and (b)
SDG/Target	Relevant indicators and description	Examples of big Earth data connection
Data, monitoring and accountability (2 targets in total) ***
SDG-17-18(3 indicators)	By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts.
	Indicator 17–18-1: (N/A*) Proportion of sustainable development indicators produced at the national level with full disaggregation when relevant to the target, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.	Mapped proportion of indicators with full disaggregation
	Indicator 17–18-2: (Reported Online) Enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data in all countries by 2020.	Multi-level map for each country of data attributes and progress towards end-goal
	Indicator 17–18-3: (Reported Online) Number of countries with a national statistical plan that is fully funded and under implementation.	Map showing these attributes: Presence of Plan, funding type, implementation level

* The globally agreed methodology has not been set for this UN SDG Indicator therefore Australia has not yet investigated potential data sources; ** Added by the authors of this paper, considering the potential for mapping of physical location of networks and connections between individuals and organisations; *** Added by the authors of this paper, considering the potential for mapping of initiatives

Table 2. Partnership examples for enabling big Earth data for the SDGs (2002–2021)

Type of partnership	Description
Intergovernmental, multi-sectoral, civil society partnerships	In 2002 the UN Commission on Sustainable Development created the CSD Guidelines for Partnership for Sustainable Development (UN CSD, 2002).
Intergovernmental partnership: INSPIRE	Between 2007 and 2021, the INSPIRE Directive sought to create a European Union spatial data infrastructure to support EU environmental policies, and policies or activities, which may have an impact on the environment (Tonchovska, Standley, & De Martino, 2012). The resultant ‘European Spatial Data Infrastructure’ enables unprecedented levels of sharing of environmental spatial information.
Intergovernmental partnership: Call for action	In 2019, the UN-GGIM (Europe) published a call for political attention in Europe for the integration of statistical and geospatial information (UNGGIM Europe, 2019a).
	In 2019, the UN-GGIM (Europe) published a report on the territorial dimension of SDG indicators: Geospatial data analysis and integration with statistical data (UNGGIM Europe, 2019b).
Multi-sectoral partnership: IGIF	Over the last 5 years, the UN Statistical Division has been working on the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) to strengthen national geospatial information management (UNGGIM, 2018). The resultant framework provides a basis and guide for all countries to ‘develop, integrate, strengthen and maximise geospatial information management and related resources (UN-GGIM, 2018).
Professional organisations – Individual and members partnership	Geospatial World was established in 1996 and has borne on to closely collaborate with policy-makers, business, academia and civil society to achieve its mission of “Making a Difference through geospatial knowledge in the World Economy and Society” (Geospatial World, 2020).
	In 2020, the International Society of Digital Earth partnered with Springer International to publish a freely available, online textbook about the role of geospatial information in informing global sustainability (Guo, Goodchild, et al., 2020). The book has had more than 800,000 downloads in its first year.
Industry partnership: Global Partnership for Sustainable Development data	The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data was established to help governments with decision-making, encourage wider use of civil society data, and bridge the gap between those who need data, platforms and technical capacity to make decisions and find the technical partners to drive change (GPSDD, 2019).
Professional organisation – Industry partnership: PP Geospatial Collaborations	In 2021, the World Geospatial Industry Council produced a report on public-private geospatial collaborations, exploring potential partnership models for increased business opportunities for its members (WGIC, 2021a). The WGIC report has a significant public-good benefit in examining PPPs’ history and context, identifying opportunities and challenges, and providing 12 examples of business-model structures and American precedents adopted by the U.S. National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) of relevance to the geospatial industry.

Figure 3. A Partnership Network Model – Australian geospatial community (SDG-17), using the author-team biographic links as examples

Figure 4. A schematic of the higher education sector’s contribution towards informed decision-making for the SDGs

Figure 5. Global Statistical Geospatial Framework (UN, 2019)

Figure 6. Summary of global reporting progress on the SDGs during 2020, wherein Australia is part of “Oceania”. Source: UN (2020a)

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Data availability statement

This work has no associated data attached.