A lack of data-sharing across Barbados and the wider Caribbean is constraining climate research and weakening decision-making, with urgent government policy needed to unlock critical datasets, the head of the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology has said.
The principal of the Barbados-based met training agency, Dr David Farrell, complained that CIMH is experiencing challenges obtaining crucial data from Barbados, a situation he warns is limiting decision-making.
Dr Farrell went further to caution that the region could be at a crossroads if those holding the required data continue to refuse to cooperate with scientists.
Dr Farrell told Barbados TODAY in an exclusive interview:
“Data sharing is critical. I can’t underscore the importance of data sharing right now. It’s the most important thing we need to do right now. Our decision making capability becomes limited, if we don’t share data and develop models and platforms that really solve problems, especially what I called nexus problems; and these nexus problems are becoming more and more challenging.
“For example, health and wellbeing has an impact on food production. So, there must be a mechanism that allows people in food production, to get health and wellbeing information. Economic decisions are based on certain types of information about your labor force,” he explained.
“And so to me, economic decision-making, not just about health and so on, but right across every sector, the information should be shared. If there are certain data sets that are sensitive, then these should be marked as sensitive or you sign agreements about how you deal with that.”
But he argued that if people “sit down with all the data” on their machines and it is not being shared, the data has zero value because it’s not being used to make any type of decision or to inform anything.
“I think the need for increased data sharing through policy and so on, becomes extremely important. I can’t make it any clearer. The sharing of data that supports investment, and improves livelihoods and so on, is extremely important.”
Asked if this challenge to CIMH is making its work easier, Dr Farrell replied: “It is a challenge for CIMH. You want to do certain things, but you don’t have access to the data, or it becomes challenging to get access to the data.”
“People talk about the speed of data these days when you get into AI and machine learning. AI and machine learning are data intensive. So, there is no point saying you are getting into AI and machine learning and you are not ready to share the data or make the data readily available, because you are defeating the purpose of what these systems actually do, and what they rely on to spit out the information out of them, and I think that can’t be overstated.”
The top climate scientist suggested: “I think the governments and private sector people need to understand you have to share data. How much data you need to share and so on, that’s a different conversation. But there are mechanisms to allow for keeping some data anonymous from people. And so, there are strategies for doing it, and we just have to be able to do it.”
But he contended that it becomes difficult to say that one wants to get into these intelligence systems, but one is not willing to share the input for the intelligence.
He continued: “The institute has challenges in terms of acquiring certain pieces of data nationally and regionally, and amongst regional institutions. There are some challenges with sharing data, but that’s getting better. As people understand scientifically and the importance of sharing data within the regional context, it is getting a little bit easier.
“Within the national context and how the national and regional interface at times, I think sometimes it’s difficult to bridge that gap and to get the data sets that you want to do things for, because people are nervous about sharing things without a policy in place, that as far as they are concerned, protects them when they share data or whatever; people are suspicious as to why you want certain data sets.”
Emphasising that a data policy is essential, the CIMH principal drew reference to the United States, noting that government data is free and open.
He contended that there is a reason why the US is well ahead in certain areas.
He explained that it is the availability of data to test models and concepts and build products and services.
Dr Farrell therefore called for the development of a culture of doing this, “and I think it starts with governments putting policies in place to advocate or encourage the sharing of data and the movement of data relatively quickly “.
He insisted that if data is not moved quickly in this age of advanced technology, then by the time a decision is made to move, somebody else would have already provided the data through other mechanisms or frameworks, thus making the delayed data irrelevant.
“And whereas, you really want your data to be relevant, because, at the end of the day, if your data is relevant, then people are more inclined to invest in helping you with your data systems because they are seeking value. So, there is a strong need to build these data frameworks, data integration frameworks, if we are going to get into the AI space and the machine learning space; essentially, the fuel for these is data,” he pointed out.
Dr Farrell warned governments and the private sector that they cannot continue to be tardy in sharing data, which can only improve their digital systems.
“We are going to be at a crossroads, if we want to keep up with global technologies and utilise them to the best of our abilities, we are going to have to revisit the data model and data policies that we have.”
(EJ)
The post Data-sharing gaps hinder Caribbean climate science – CIMH appeared first on Barbados Today.
