The experience of the Republic of Belarus in integration of geospatial and statistical information presented at the CES plenary session in Geneva

20 june 2024

Events 2024

The 72nd plenary session of the Conference of European Statisticians (CES) is taking place on 20–21 June 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. The National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus is represented at the event by the First Deputy Chairperson Elena Kukharevich.

During the session dedicated to the integration of geospatial information and statistical data the First Deputy Chairperson of Belstat presented the experience of the Republic of Belarus as regards the implementation of geo-information technologies in statistical activities and the strategic concept of development of Belarus statistics in this area.

"The integration of geospatial data and official statistics has great potential in strengthening national statistics: the system of statistical indicators available for visualisation is expanding; new geo-referenced SDG indicators are being calculated and made available for visualisation; cooperation is developing to improve the management and use of geospatial information in different sectors of the national economy. The key to success in this area is the well-established co-operation between the National Statistical Committee and the National Cadastral Agency. This work requires constant improvement taking into account international standards and practices in the field of geospatial information," said Elena Kukharevich.

First Deputy Chairperson of Belstat said that in January 2024 Belarus started creating the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, its fundamental components were defined. She stressed that the principles and standards of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN IGIF) would be fully adapted and implemented in the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.

Elena Kukharevich shared the experience of Belstat as regards the improvement of methods of dissemination of official statistics and calculation of SDG indicators using GIS technologies, implementation of geo-information modules in the statistical register.

"The use of GIS technologies is a promising vector of development of modern statistics. For a number of years already Belstat has been actively using GIS technologies in statistical activities. Expanding the use of geoinformation services and tools opens new horizons in the dissemination of official statistics. While initially we had the task of visualising only the results of the population census, later we started to implement GIS technologies for other statistical domains as well. As a result, the "Geostatistics" information-analytical system was created. And today it is actually a system of interactive graphical visualisation of all official statistics," said First Deputy Chairperson of Belstat.

Elena Kukharevich paid special attention to the active implementation of GIS technologies in the process of assessment and monitoring of SDGs.

"The methodology for ten indicators from the national list of SDG indicators has already been developed by integrating statistical and geospatial information, and the indicators themselves have been calculated. Moreover, GIS technologies are the only tool of obtaining data for calculation of selected SDG indicators. This year the specialists of Belstat are carrying out experimental calculations and visualization of some SDG indicators with the use of ArcGIS," noted First Deputy Chairperson of Belstat.

Within the framework of improving the dissemination of official statistics, Belstat will continue to expand the list of SDG indicators produced and visualized using GIS.

The information presented by the Republic of Belarus was of great interest to the international expert community.