By Jose Barbero and Luis Uechl, Inter-American Development Bank. Transforming Transportation 2011. Washington, D.C. January 27, 2011.

2. Assessment of Latin America transport data availability and quality Summary of a IDB study conducted in eight countries in the Region José Barbero and Luis Uechi January 27th, 2011 Washington, DC

3. http://www.iadb.org The Inter-American Development Bank Discussion Papers and Presentations are documents prepared by both Bank and non-Bank personnel as supporting materials for events and are often produced on an expedited publication schedule without formal editing or review. The information and opinions presented in these publications are entirely those of the author(s), and no endorsement by the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the countries they represent is expressed or implied. This presentation may be freely reproduced.

4. Presentation Contents Report objectives and organization Motivation and scope Survey organization Survey results Data applicability and availability Data quality assessment Conclusions and recommendations Main findings Proposed actions

5. Report objectives and organization Survey results Conclusions and recommendations

6. The relevance of transport data The importance of transport sector in developing countries can be weighted in many ways The share of the sector in the economy, in household expenditures, in the public and private investment plans, in the energy the sector consumes or in the emission its generates Therefore, the availability and quality of transport data have important implications in decision-making in the public sector Transportation planning models Models for infrastructure maintenance and expansion Models for service regulation Models for estimating emissions of greenhouse gases Transport data in the private sector is also a prerequisite for decisions – strategic and operational – made by the firms, particularly those participating in the logistics chains

7. Survey motivation and organization This work is the result of an initiative taken by the ADB and shared with the IDB, aimed at the assessment of the transport data availability and quality as regards the estimate of GHG emissions at the national level The initiative is shared with other institutions through SLOCAT (Sustainable Low Carbon Transport) Asian Development Bank is carrying out a similar task, looking at getting joint conclusions that reflect the situation in developing countries The yardstick utilized in the assessment is a detailed GHG emission model: its demands were the base for the estimation of data availability and quality The basic model was developed in Australia; it provides a level of detail considerably higher than those used by developing countries to prepare its National Communications The IDB is starting a more comprehensive analysis of transport data needs, beyond climate change specific models

8. Tables structure The requested data were organized in set of spreadsheets (Workbook) Data are not restricted to the transportation sector; they also include factors that influence transport activity and emissions The workbook was completed in eight Latin American countries by local experts fully familiar with their national transport sector and data sources Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru: different size and income level The task required the harmonization - as much as possible – of the criteria for assessing the data availability and quality, in order to compare and process the results The assignment was carried on during the first months of 2010

9. Report objectives and organization Survey results Conclusions and recommendations

10. Data applicability and availability The proportion of attributes that effectively «apply» reflects the complexity of each country transport system: the existing transport modes, the diversity of fuels they utilize, the variety of vehicles in the fleets, the existence of waterways, etc. The proportion of data actually “applying” depends on the data universe defined in the spreadsheet taken as the basis The proportion of data available (in some form) out of the applicable ones is a more relevant indicator, reflecting the effective existence of basic information Most countries are in the range of 80% to 90%; the two ones with the lowest income per capita depict lower values

11. Data availability by group of attributes Very high availability (more than 95%): Data related to international trade, energy end use, national accounts, emission types, transport vehicles Intermediate availability (80% to 95%): Type of fuel utilized by the transport modes, vehicles property, type of trailer in freight transport, spatial scope of the transport activity (urban, inter-urban, etc.) Low availability (50% to 80%): Transport commercial arrangements, pack type, trip purpose for passenger and freight

12. Data availability by mode and data type Three fourth of the attributes are mode-specific: analysis can be made on data availability by mode Non-motorized transport modes shows very little data availability (in the range of 30% to 40%) Within motorized modes, road, water-domestic and conveyor transport show the weakest data availability (around 80%) Rail, pipelines, air transport (domestic and international) and international maritime transport show the highest availability (around 90%) From the variable type perspective, the two categories with the lowest values of data availability are trip purpose and trip commercial arrangement (60% to 70%)

13. Data quality descriptors

14. Data quality: modal perspective The joint analysis of data availability at the sub-attributes level and data qualityby transport mode reveals that: Non motorized modes show the weakest scores in both descriptors There are three notable data breakdown weaknesses: emissions data for railways and pipelines activity (task) data for domestic water transportation (surely attributable to IWT) disaggregated fuel related data for road transportation In terms of data quality, the most remarkable weaknesses are: fuel related data in all modes vehicles and activity level in road transportation. The international transportation practice (air and water) tend to show better results than the domestic one, both in data breakdown availability and quality

15. Report objectives and organization Survey results Conclusions and recommendations

16. Main findings The assessment done is based on an specific utilization of transport (and non-transport) data; it allowed to find out the major gaps with this purpose In Latin America transport data are available for a fairly large proportion of the applicable attributes, but data breakdown and quality are poor The quality of the transport data looks relatively weak when compared with those from other sectors in which there are international standards and supervising institutions (energy, national accounts, demographics) International transportation and those modes in which services are supplied by few large firms exhibit better data availability Quality assurance protocols for transport data are very scarce in the Region

17. Main findings (continued) The generation of transport-related information is highly fragmented, with a myriad of institutions, public and private, generating data in each country The public sector is the dominant provider; but many data it collects are not processed The private sector is a relevant actor, gathering transport-related data in several areas (particularly freight) The growing role of TICs – particularly in freight – may ease data capture and register Many available data usually emerge from administrative needs: All countries have vehicles registers, fuel sales registers, etc. Data breakdowns - useful for policy but without sizeable administrative meaning - seem to have no incentive

18. Proposed actions