Statistics and Demography/Population ProgrammeSecretariat of the Pacific Community

Census Geography in the Pacific

United Nations Expert Group Meeting onon the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses: International standards, contemporary technologies and regional cooperation.

MAP LAYER

Marshall Islands

Kiribati

Tuvalu

French Polynesia

Tokelau

AmSamoa

SamoaWallis etFutuna

PitcairnIslands

CookIslands

Niue

Fiji

Vanuatu

New Caledonia

SolomonIslands

Papua New Guinea

Tonga

Nauru

Palau

Guam

CNMI

Federated States of Micronesia

• 22 member countries (15) and territories (7) • 9.3 million people over 34 million square km of ocean• Unique Pacific challenges

– Distance – Scale– Scattered populations– Challenging physical geography

Pacific Islands region - Background

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010KiribatiPalau

Cook IslandsNiueSamoaTokelauTonga

Fiji Marshall IslandsSolomon IslandsVanuatu

Am. SamoaCNMIFSMGuamPNG

MAP LAYER

Marshall Islands

Kiribati

Tuvalu

French Polynesia

Tokelau

AmSamoa

SamoaWallis etFutuna

PitcairnIslands

CookIslands

Niue

Fiji

Vanuatu

New Caledonia

SolomonIslands

Papua New Guinea

Tonga

Nauru

Palau

Guam

CNMI

Federated States of Micronesia

TEXT LAYER

Population and Housing Censuses, 2010 round

Wallis et Futuna

Province District

LLGCensus Unit

Papua New Guinea

Group Island

Village

4 feet above sea levellargest land area of any atoll in the world.

1000 km

Past experience - What are the constraints?

$ Cost and financing

• PICTS experienced difficulties financing their census operations in 2000 round.

Base maps did not exist

• Some censuses in the past were planned and collected without a clear GIS capability in mind and a lack of geographic identifiers. Digital base maps were not always available.

Staff

• Lack of skilled personel and loss of experienced staff (turnover) If there is continuous change of staff it impacts on the sustainability of census activities.

Know how ?

• Traditionally census mapping was given low priority. Some NSOs countries relied heavily on assistance from their resident Lands and Surveys Dept or Mapping Agency.

• Collaboration with other government agencies has been challenging

Time

• Pre census mapping is usually done late in the planning phase of the census cycle (often ad-hoc and too late).

8 Wallis and Futuna

140 PNG8Kiribati

14 Vanuatu5 Palau16 Guam

5Tuvalu6 Northern Marianas

n.a.French Polynesia

25 Tonga3 Niue80 Fiji

1Tokelau41 New Caledonia

19FSM

22Solomon Islands

3Nauru10Cook Islands

27 Samoa7 Marshall Islands

7 American Samoa

StaffCountryStaffCountryStaffCountry

PICT National Statistics Office staff numbers

No digital maps used in EA definition

No up to date maps existed in 1999 census

Populations numbers in some of the urban EAs were difficult

to manage resulting in unreasonable workloads for enumerators

Port Vila, VanuatuBlacksands (peri-Urban) Enumeration AreaIn the 1999 Census this area was enumerated with

: 943 Households: 4818 Population

Blacksands 835

20051997

Port Vila, VanuatuFreshwota (peri-Urban) EA 840In the 1999 Census this area had

: 492 Households: 2715 Total Population

2005 EA’s in yellow2000 EA’s in green

Problems with census mapping EA delineation: South Tarawa, Kiribati

• Most recent census November 2006

• No digital census block maps from 1996 were available only hard copy printed maps.

• NSO staff worked with Ministry of Lands and Survey and Natural Resources on long term attachment (building capacity, improving relationship and less resource intensive on NSO)

• Census block maps showed essential features (land parcels) and clear boundaries, as well as useful features such as churches gas station and roads that would help enumerators locate households and buildings shown on the map.

‘Old school’ vs ‘New School’ techniques

•Automated cartography approach •Mapping of cadastral data (land parcels) which made up each census block

•Manual digitization and plotting points (quite a manual labour intensive and time consuming process )•However project moved from manual process to digital GIS by acquiring a scanner and satellite imagery for most of the Kingdom of Tonga•Establishment of revised Tonga Map Grid (TMG)

Aerial photography 1:5,000 and 1:50,000 scale

Digital map layers (roads, Rivers, contour lines and major buildings) for whole of Samoa

Digitisation of census map Sheets (878 EAs and approx 30,000 HH).

Case SamoaRemote sensing approach

Satellite Imagery and GPSCase : Republic of the Marshall Islands

• 2006 the Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office conducted socio-economic Community Survey on six Atolls to investigate basic living conditions and economic situation.

• Used small hand held mobile Global Positioning System (GPS) units and high resolution satellite imagery

• The team surveyed 1,205 households across 6 Atolls with data collected on 9,491 individuals (roughly 20% of the estimated population of the RMI.

Majuro Survey Team being trained in GPS

Case : Republic of the Marshall IslandsPre Survey Mapping

GPS coordinates, and selected households

Survey map provided to Ebeye Survey Team

Case : Republic of the Marshall IslandsData Collection

Case : Republic of the Marshall IslandsPost Survey mapping

Children living adjacent to thecurrent public dump in Majuro.

PopGIS for data dissemination and utilization

• There was a need to simplify population data, and to make these data more accessible at levels of geography below simply national levels.

• The SPC developed a customised software (Population GIS) for statisticians and planners, to improve the effectiveness of census (and other socio-economic) data dissemination and utilization

• So far 10 national systems have been developed covering the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga and Wallis et Futuna

Two distinct groups of intended users • The producers of data and statistics (NSO)• The main users of this data (Planning)

Output: Population Atlas RMI

Future Outlook - Demand for small area dataSolomon Islands 2 April Tsunami

• In the pacific for some time there has been a growing demand for small area

statistics below the national sub-national level.

• A prime example is the need for village level population and housing data required for assessing, monitoring and managing disaster preparedness, given the Pacific islands' exposure to cyclones, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

• More recently an earthquake measuring 8.1 struck the Solomon Islands on 2 April creating a tsunami causing significant damage in the Solomon Islands. Information on displaced village population was needed in targeting emergency response work.

Future outlook – Dissemination: Internet mapping

• Maps have become common place on the internet with the recent emergence of new “geobrowsing” technologies such as Google Earth, Google Maps and NASA World Wind.

• Low -cost, easy-to-use alternatives to the more traditional heavyweight GIS applications.

• SPC member country NSO’s also publish census mapping outputs via their national PRISM websites.

• Internet based map servers being deployed in many Pacific Island countries will also make dissemination of census data to a wider audience also possible

Map Server in Pacific Island Countries

• To reduce vulnerability for Pacific Island States through availability of mapping information on the Internet. (SOPAC EU)

• Map server, presenting maps via the web, developed with OpenSource software operating in 14 PICTs

GPS used for collecting coordinates of individual houses

The use of GPS for census taking has a distinct advantage in allowing the linking of census records to an actual physical location. In most PICTs, as is the case in many developing countries, no exact location database of dwellings exist for census project use, and a lack of street names and numbers mean no address lists are available.

GPS also serves as a management tool: It is also expected to streamline the process for census workers and managers. here cross checking can be made and if necessary enumerators can be sent back to areas they have missed.

In this situation handheld GPS and satellite imagery will greatly increase the accuracy of residence locations particularly in rural areas

•PDA (Personal Device Assistant)A small, handheld lightweight field computer with GPS enabled

•Simple navigation for enumerators using maps and Satellite Imagery

•For updating EA boundaries •and also able to take GPS locations of Households

•Automated questionnaire entry

•Simple synchronization of field updates with laptop.

Video Clip

Video Clip

Household listing example

Model Census Questionnaire example

GIS GPS/PDA INTEGRATION

Critical success factors• Building an effective mapping capacity is very much tied to relationships built with other

spatial data gathering agencies. (E.g. GIS user groups and Lands and Survey departments)

• Develop a regional approach to training capacity building (sharing) or capacity- supplementation. Perhaps establish a regional census and survey cartographic capacity with a regional organization, like SPC.

• Sharing of technology such as a stockpile of GPS units provided on loan to PICTs prior to census and survey undertakings). SOPAC allow use of A0 scanner for countries to use and satellite imagery.

• NSOs could benefit from the exchange of experience among countries through South South collaboration and synergies created.

• The participating countries and agencies would serve as resources to each other and form a repository of knowledge and implementing practices. E.g. – Census Knowledge Base

• Censuses and surveys need to be properly planned, resourced and collected with a clear GIS capability in mind. Needs to become an ongoing process rather than implemented as an ad hoc task too late in the census cycle.

• Political will and leadership is needed to make it work.

• Tank yu tumas Meataki ma’ata Malo aupito Ko raba Thank you Vinaka vakalevu Tangio tumas Sulang Faafetai tele lava Merci