Earth Observations in Support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Publication year
Resource type
UNCCD Library
Material Type
ebook
In adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, world leaders agreed that a global Indicator framework was necessary to measure, monitor and report progress towards the 17 transformational Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associated Targets. They also recognised the critical importance of “transparent and accountable scaling-up of appropriate public-private cooperation to exploit the contribution to be made by a wide range of data, including Earth observation and geospatial information, while ensuring national ownership in supporting and tracking progress”.
GEO convenes effective partnerships for societal benefit through use of free and open Earth observation (EO) data. The GEO Initiative ‘Earth Observations in Service of the 2030 Agenda’, together with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) have issued a new report to highlight case studies of how EO responds to sustainable development, whether for health, disaster risk reduction or environmental protection
To track progress towards these Goals and Targets, the global Indicator framework must capture the multi-faceted and ambitious aspirations for the continued development of nations and societies. Effective reporting of progress toward these Indicators will require the use of multiple types of data, both what we have in hand – traditional national accounts, household surveys and routine administrative data – and new sources of data outside national statistical systems, notably Earth observations (EO) and geospatial information (GI), using modern data processing techniques more appropriate to large volumes of EO data. The integration of all these data can produce a quantum leap in how we monitor and track development and advance the well-being of our societies.
Earth Observations in Support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development- highlighting the UNCCD's approach to monitoring land degradation
While ensuring national ownership and retaining the flexibility for countries to use their national data, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has outlined a standardized approach for reporting on SDG Indicator 15.3.1, which focuses primarily
on the use of three sub-Indicators:
Land Cover and Land Cover Change;
Land Productivity; and
Carbon Stocks above and below ground.
Such a framework gives options for countries to use Earth Observation, geospatial information and other global/regional data sources in the absence of, or to complement and enhance, national data sources.
GEO convenes effective partnerships for societal benefit through use of free and open Earth observation (EO) data. The GEO Initiative ‘Earth Observations in Service of the 2030 Agenda’, together with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) have issued a new report to highlight case studies of how EO responds to sustainable development, whether for health, disaster risk reduction or environmental protection
To track progress towards these Goals and Targets, the global Indicator framework must capture the multi-faceted and ambitious aspirations for the continued development of nations and societies. Effective reporting of progress toward these Indicators will require the use of multiple types of data, both what we have in hand – traditional national accounts, household surveys and routine administrative data – and new sources of data outside national statistical systems, notably Earth observations (EO) and geospatial information (GI), using modern data processing techniques more appropriate to large volumes of EO data. The integration of all these data can produce a quantum leap in how we monitor and track development and advance the well-being of our societies.
Earth Observations in Support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development- highlighting the UNCCD's approach to monitoring land degradation
While ensuring national ownership and retaining the flexibility for countries to use their national data, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has outlined a standardized approach for reporting on SDG Indicator 15.3.1, which focuses primarily
on the use of three sub-Indicators:
Land Cover and Land Cover Change;
Land Productivity; and
Carbon Stocks above and below ground.
Such a framework gives options for countries to use Earth Observation, geospatial information and other global/regional data sources in the absence of, or to complement and enhance, national data sources.
Keywords
land degradation
land indicators
desertification