Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative
AGEDI's key elements
- An Environmental Information Infrastructure will be built on past successes and address shortcomings, by integrating innovative approaches for data collection, collation, analysis and use
- The world will be subdivided into relevant environmental regions for data collection and policy action
- Data will be comparable over time with consistent units of measurement, using advanced information technologies and satellite imaging
- Strategic partnerships between governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, universities and the private sector will ensure a collaborative rather than a competitive approach
AGEDI Implementation
The AGEDI implementation is envisaged in three levels, global, regional and national. The implementation is designed in an incremental manner and the first level of implementation will be at the national level. Several of the national implementations will constitute the regional implementation and the regional implementations will contribute towards the global implementation.
To facilitate the implementation process the world has been divided into eight regions and they include West Asia, South, East and Central Asia, North Africa, the Rest of Africa, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, and Europe.
The national implementation component could again be divided into several sub-national implementations depending on the characteristics of the country. The global and regional study of the best practices in environmental data management will feed in to the national implementation, thus enabling it draw on the benefits of past experiences, and developments in technology in other countries.
It was decided that the first implementation of AGEDI, at the national level, will be in the United Arab Emirates. In order to avoid the complexities of coordinating stakeholders throughout the seven emirates and to enable a pilot implementation within the limited time of three years allocated for the first phase of AGEDI implementation, the Abu Dhabi Sub National Implementation Pilot Project (AD-SNIPP) was conceived. The combination of each Emirate implementing components of AGEDI will eventually result in the national implementation.