Data & Analytics

Data and analytics are increasingly recognized as fundamental elements in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, aim to address global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. Each goal is interconnected, requiring a holistic approach to achieve sustainable development by 2030. Within this framework, SDG 17, "Partnerships for the Goals," is particularly crucial as it highlights the need for high-quality, timely, and reliable data to drive progress across all goals.

The importance of data and analytics in realizing the SDGs cannot be overstated. Accurate and insightful data is necessary for several key aspects: assessing current progress, identifying existing gaps, informing policy-making, and guiding the allocation of resources. For instance, in addressing SDG 1, "No Poverty," data helps in understanding the demographics of poverty, allowing for targeted interventions. Similarly, for SDG 3, "Good Health and Well-being," data analytics play a crucial role in tracking disease outbreaks, understanding health trends, and improving healthcare delivery.

In the education sector, under SDG 4, "Quality Education," data can inform about areas where educational resources are lacking or where dropout rates are high, guiding efforts to enhance education systems. Additionally, for SDG 13, "Climate Action," data is indispensable for understanding climate patterns, predicting future scenarios, and formulating strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Advancements in data collection and analytics methods have opened up new possibilities. Mobile technology, for example, has revolutionized data collection, enabling real-time gathering and dissemination of information even in remote areas. Remote sensing technologies, such as satellite imagery, provide critical data on environmental changes, agricultural patterns, and urban development. These methods not only expand the scope of data collection but also enhance its accuracy and timeliness.

However, challenges remain in harnessing the full potential of data for the SDGs. These include issues related to data availability, quality, accessibility, and interoperability. In many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, there is a significant data deficit. This gap hinders the ability to make informed decisions and effectively address the SDGs. Moreover, data collected must be reliable and relevant to be useful in policy formulation and implementation.

To overcome these challenges, partnerships between governments, private sector, academia, and civil society are vital. These collaborations can foster innovation in data collection and analytics, ensure data sharing, and build capacities for data analysis. Furthermore, there is a need for a global framework to standardize data collection and reporting methods, which will facilitate comparison and aggregation of data across regions and countries.

Blood donation saves lives, and the communication between blood centers and donors plays a vital role in this. Smart apps are now considered an important communication tool, and could be best utilized in blood donation if they are designed to fit the users’ needs and preferences.
Elsevier,

Chris D. Jones, Chapter 4 - Numerical modeling of the global climate and carbon cycle system, Editor(s): Trevor M. Letcher, Climate Change (Third Edition), Elsevier, 2021, Pages 67-91

This chapter advances SDGs 13 and 15 by applying numerical modeling techniques to better understand the global climate and utilize observations to identify impacts of climate change on Earth.
Background: In 2016, of the estimated 257 million people living with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection worldwide, only a small proportion was diagnosed and treated. The insufficiency of information on the proportion of people infected with HBV who are eligible for treatment limits the interpretation of global treatment coverage. We aimed to estimate the proportion of people with chronic HBV infection who were eligible for antiviral treatment worldwide, based on the WHO 2015 guidelines.
The latest price movement in the European carbon markets (EU ETS) has reached its all-time high of €40/tonne, which demonstrates how much uncertainty is currently present in the market. Contributing to SDGs 12 and 13, this white paper provides scenario-based impact analysis of the market stability reserve in the context of the EU ETS review.
Elsevier,

Materials and the Environment (Third Edition): Chapter 2 - Resource consumption and its drivers, Volume , 2021.

This book chapter advances SDG 12 by summarizing the orders of magnitude of the flow of materials, energy and water that material production entails.
This Article supports SDG 3 by summarising global, regional, and national estimates of the burden of tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer and larynx cancer and their attributable risks from 1990 to 2019, and highlighting the importance of preventive measures such as smoking control interventions, air quality management programmes focused on major air pollution sources, and widespread access to clean energy.
Background: Patients from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the relationship between ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19. Methods: Databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PROSPERO, Cochrane library and MedRxiv) were searched up to 31st August 2020, for studies reporting COVID-19 data disaggregated by ethnicity. Outcomes were: risk of infection; intensive therapy unit (ITU) admission and death. PROSPERO ID: 180654.
Elsevier, Current Opinion in Food Science, Volume 36, December 2020
The massive rise of Big Data generated from smartphones, social media, Internet of Things (IoT), and multimedia, has produced an overwhelming flow of data in either structured or unstructured format. Big Data technologies are being developed and implemented in the food supply chain that gather and analyse these data. Such technologies demand new approaches in data collection, storage, processing and knowledge extraction. In this article, an overview of the recent developments in Big Data applications in food safety are presented.
This chapter advances SDG 6, 12, and 13 by examining the emergence of water sustainability aspects in recent virtual water trade (VWT) literature, highlights the recent advances and remaining issues in evaluating the water sustainability of agriculture globally, and makes recommendations for future scientific research and societal change: consider groundwater both at the local scale and at the global scale; improve our understanding of groundwater storage and dynamics with new models and data; and raise the profile of groundwater sustainability in governance frameworks to eventually end environmental damages of groundwater exploitation.
This chapter advances SDG 6, 12, and 13 by explaining the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow On (GRACE-FO) missions that have greatly benefitted the modeling and monitoring of groundwater storage changes and drought at the global scale. In this chapter, we first review environmental controls on the temporal variability of groundwater using in situ data. We then describe an approach that infuses GRACE and GRACE-FO observations into a land surface model for assessing groundwater storage changes and drought globally.

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