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A new approach to data and knowledge systems with increased emphasis on an evidence-based approach to decision-making is crucial to meet the various SDGs. By placing these systems at the forefront for all end users, cross collaboration can be innately encouraged to foster new skills, technologies, and sources of data. In turn, our knowledge of sustainable development will improve, alongside our understanding of the SDGs. However, organizational and methodological challenges will arise regarding data privacy, ownership and use (Sustainable Development Solutions Network 2017).


3.4.2 Thematic data gaps


In almost all thematic areas (including biodiversity, land, air, water and oceans), available data are lacking (Figure 3.4), particularly in developing countries. Environmental indicators linked to industrial activities are easier to measure and monitor, for example energy consumption or water use. Land cover and ecosystem extent can be assessed on a broad scale using satellite remote sensing, but not always with the necessary resolution. The effects of environmental change, air and water pollution, and other environmental conditions are particularly difficult to measure (UNEP 2012); hence the need to explore a paradigm shift on environmental monitoring approaches – depicting the social orientation and complementing the approach with physical attributions.


The following is a brief description of some of the major data gaps from the thematic chapters in Part A of this report.


3


Drivers (Chapter 2) National-level population data are relatively sound for most countries due to government census requirements, but weaknesses arise from aggregation across sectors of the population. National census data are generally insufficient to answer important intra-household questions, such as contraception use and access, fertility, household decision making and family structure (e.g. age of marriage). To be properly understood, these and other variables should be disaggregated by age, gender, race and other socioeconomic factors. Urbanization data are plagued by similar issues of national aggregation. There is a lack of information on small and medium-sized cities, and inconsistency in the scale of reporting. For both population and urbanization, there need to be standard agreements on statistics at a global scale, and greater consistency and coverage. Other significant data gaps include rural to urban migration, the role of nuclear households, the distribution of benefits provided by technology, and patterns of production and consumption. Uncertainty also exists in the myriad factors affecting economic development, and dependencies between this and other drivers. For example, financial estimates of the cost of unsustainable practices and impacts of climate change require greater accuracy and transparency, given that, while numbers exist, there is low confidence in their accuracy.


In addition to gaps in raw data, gaps exist in the mechanistic understanding of the driver processes. Future technologies and events will alter the global landscape and qualitatively change the roles of other drivers. For example, automation may change the nature of transportation, which would have flow-on effects to many other areas. The impact of climate change on human health requires better analyses and understanding of current


62 Setting the Stage


and future links between these factors. More data are needed on the effect of climate change on human demographics, including migration estimates at finer scales (McMichael, Barnett and McMichael 2012). There is sectoral imbalance in knowledge on the effects of climate change, with impacts on the energy sector being well understood, while impacts on land use, ecosystem processes and functions, and intersectoral issues are not.


Air (Chapter 5) An overarching issue with air quality data is that, unlike meteorological variables, few air pollutant concentrations are measured with sufficient spatial and temporal coverage. Therefore, the effects of most chemicals are estimated by using other (measured) chemicals as proxies, which is likely to be inaccurate in many cases. For example, only a few persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances are measured, and their data are globally patchy. Where monitoring does exist, it is biased towards developed countries, compromising analyses of air pollution versus human health in developing countries. There is a general need for capacity- building to facilitate the measurement of air pollution in developing countries, both for national benefit and to complete global coverage. Bias in air quality sampling also exists within countries, and there is a need for more sampling in areas of low socioeconomic status (e.g. informal or slum dwellings).


Impacts of air quality on human health gained attention in the Global Burden of Disease Study – a global study of factors influencing human health (World Health Organization [WHO] 2018), which elevated air pollution to a top priority. Instead of relying only on cities that have air quality monitoring, satellite data and modelling were used to estimate air pollution at large scales (Brauer et al. 2016). Additionally, there are currently few consistent global emissions inventories. Inventories are gathered or modelled in some regions, but data quality and sources vary. There are, however, consistent inventories available at a European level and at international level for a selection of pollutants (e.g. under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution).


Efforts should focus on greater sampling coverage and/or modelling, potentially with sensors or satellites. The Copernicus programme aims to measure a number of air quality variables on a regular basis and provide data for all countries. Another European initiative for data reporting is the Air Quality Directive, which provides for statistical data that are produced annually, and an online map of air quality that is updated every 6 hours.


Biodiversity (Chapter 6) Biological data and knowledge are sparse compared with the complexity and diversity of biological systems. In general, data paucity increases at finer spatial scales, and at higher taxonomic resolutions. Estimates of the total number of species vary between 2 million and 13 million (Costello, Wilson and Houlding 2012; Scheffers et al. 2012), with the majority (86 per cent of terrestrial species, and 91 per cent of oceanic species) believed to be undescribed (Mora et al. 2011). Invertebrates and deep-sea ecosystems are particularly poorly described. Biologists increasingly use genetic information to identify species (a technique known as DNA barcoding) (Hosein et al. 2017), but more traditional taxonomy is still needed to describe morphological traits.


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