The Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL)

BASIC CONCEPTS

Fabio Grita

System support officer, FAO

Objectives

To facilitate mapping and geospatial analysis of data across countries by harmonizing boundaries and names of the administrative units at global level

To provide the international community with the most

reliable and up-to-date data on international boundaries and administrative units for all countries in the world

To create an easily maintainable standard for

administrative units in order to geo-reference statistical, forecast and real-time datasets

GAUL layers

WILAYA (Districts) KATA NDOGO TAARAFA (Divisions) KATA (Locations)

GAUL helps to geographically represent statistical information (e.g. crop production, nutrition, population, etc.) at national and sub-national levels

Yearly wheat production of districts

of Sylhet Province

How to use GAUL

GAUL districts of Sylhet Province

Wheat Production of Bangladesh

(Year 2007)

5822

Yearly wheat production

How to use GAUL

GAUL - disputed areas

GAUL is compliant with the guidelines provided by the United Nation Cartographic Section (UNCS)

INDIA

PAKISTAN

CHINA

GAUL Approach

Data collection (from various national and international sources)

Data evaluation (using official documents and sources)

Data integration in GAUL (selected data becomes an integral part of GAUL)

New GAUL release

Distribution to authorized users:

(UN agencies, Universities, Research Centres, NGOs)

GAUL benefits from the contribution of its own users

GAUL Visualization

FENIX Mapping

GAUL Users

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Global Information and Early Warning System (EST)

◦ Rainfall Tool

Natural Resources Service (NRC) ◦ the South-East Asia poverty mapping project

Land and Water development division (NRL) ◦ AgroMaps: A global spatial database of agricultural land-use statistics aggregated by sub-national

administrative districts

◦ Aquastat: FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture

Fishery Marine Resources Service (FIR) ◦ FIGIS: Fisheries Global Information System

Statistics Division (ESS) ◦ CountryStat

Information Technology Department (CIO)

GAUL Users

UN agencies

World Food Programme (WFP)

World Health Organization (WHO)

UN Joint Logistic Centre (UNJLC)

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Data Exchange Platform for the Horn of Africa (DEPHA) – UNDP

Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI)

GAUL Users

other GAUL users

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET)

NGOs: World Vision International, Save of Children

Projects: Food Security and Analysis Unit (FSAU), Global Monitoring for Food Security sponsored by the European Space Agency (GMFS)

Universities: University of Rome “La Sapienza”, San Diego State University and University of California, Aston University (UK), University of Carolina North Carolina.

Why users are interested in GAUL?

To have an authoritative source for boundaries and names

To display reliable boundaries/names in their applications

To rely on a solid geo-coding system for spatially represent their data (e.g. productions, population, etc.)

Issues and Adopted Solutions

ISSUES SOLUTIONS

Disputed areas GAUL is compliant with guidelines and boundaries published by the UN Cartographic Section

Some of the GAUL boundaries might not be validated by the national Government

FAO-GAUL disclaimer visible from any application or map

GAUL data is not downloadable from users’ applications (boundaries can only be displayed)

Uncertainty on data policy for some of the countries

Political (and sometimes administrative) boundaries may be sensitive data

Thank You for Your Attention

GLOBAL

ADMINISTRATIVE

UNIT

LAYERS