Showcase Application Network of Open Access to and Application of Scientific Data for Approaching Millennium Development Goals

Prof. LIU Chuang

Leading Professor of Global Change Information and Research Center, Institute of Geography and Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences and

Director of World Resources Research, School of Science and Technology of Natural Resources, Beijing Normal University, China

No.11A Datun Road, Chaoyang District Beijing 100101, China, email: lchuang@igsnrr.ac.cn

We are at the half-way point to reach the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. Many cases indicate that scientific data and information greatly benefit the knowledge economy and development in different regions, especially in the developing world at local and regional levels. The proportion of people living on less than $1 a day from 1990 to 2004 has changed from 31.5% to 19.2% (UN Millennium Development Goals Report, 2007), which means that there are 270 million people in the world whose living conditions have been improved from extremely poverty and hunger. Not only the goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, but also all of the 128 indicators for the MDGs from 1990-2004 show that there has been great progress in the world to reach the MDGs. The UN GAID e-SDDC has established the showcase application network as Action Line 5 in its implementation plan. The showcase application network of open access to and application of scientific data for approaching Millennium Development Goals will demonstrate more actively how scientific data and information play the critical role in the development progress. The metadata with the reference format for the showcase applications, together with a case study on China has been discussed, and the functions and structures of the showcase application network have been designed and developed. This presentation will review the progress to date.