The Census Bureau is requesting $22.3 million in its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal to establish a data lake to handle 2020 census data and help implement emerging technologies, Federal Times reported Thursday. The bureau aims to integrate its 2020 census data lake with the new enterprise platform to accelerate research work and support policy-making efforts.
According to the budget documents, the new data lake will improve access to massive amounts of demographic and economic information while updating survey and administrative data processing through cloud, artificial intelligence, machine learning and "big data" procedures.
"We will see some reduction in redundant data, while increasing the data that is useful to our mission,” said Kevin Smith, chief information officer of the Census Bureau. “Furthermore, the EDL will support the Census Bureau’s longstanding leadership in data analytics and technology. This includes accelerating data innovation, realizing benefits through standardization and using cloud and open source technology.”
The bureau plans to expand EDL to include third-party data in the next fiscal years.
