The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a universal development agenda for all countries and stakeholders to use as a blueprint of action for people, the planet and prosperity. The Agenda specifically demands new data acquisition and integration approaches to improve the quality, coverage, and availability of data to support its implementation at all levels. To advocate and realize the contributions of Earth observations in supporting the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) has launched a dedicated Initiative, Earth Observations for the Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG). EO4SDG works with National Statistical Offices, National Mapping Agencies, international statistical agencies, UN entities, as well as UN Member States working with GEO to integrate Earth Observations into national data streams and monitoring frameworks, as well as real-world applications that can reduce and mitigate environmental risk and disasters, creating more sustainable and resilient societies. This presentation will share good practice examples, including use cases, where Earth observations are being used to support SDG analysis, monitoring, and reporting on local to global scale. The presentation will also reflect on key findings including challenges and lessons learned from a survey completed by UN Member States working with GEO on how they are using – or planning to use – Earth observations for the SDGs.

Earth Observation (EO) is part of a wider technological revolution as society moves into the Big Data age, where cloud computing and artificial intelligence will radically change how data are processed and interpreted. Although an all-encompassing term for an array of sensors and platforms, satellite-based EO in particular has a key role to play in the collection of planetary scale environmental information. The combination of Copernicus Sentinel data with other data sources from the European member states as well as the US satellite missions (e.g. Landsat-8), will most likely open new possibilities for EO data applications as well as strengthening existing ones. These monitoring technologies will be a corner stone in the achievement of the United Nations Agenda 2030 for sustainable development.
Satellite EO provides the advantage of objective, consistent, systematic and cost-effective data at global coverage, presenting a unique source of information, additional and complementary to national statistics. Therefore it can meet some of the current and overwhelming demand for environmental information required by countries to fulfil their reporting obligations under the SDG indicator monitoring framework as well as in planning for and setting SDG Targets.
The ESA-funded project titled “Earth Observation for Sustainable Development Goals” examined the contribution of EO to the SDG monitoring framework by systematically reviewing the SDG indicator published methodologies and workplans with respect to the state of the art in satellite EO. Evidence of EO contribution to the methodologies was gathered from a literature review and expert consultation. A “traffic light” system was then implemented, to categorize the contribution of EO to the indicators, with green referring to SDG indicators for which EO has been identified as a source of information or would make a definite contribution to their methodological development, amber for SDG indicators which EO has not been currently identified as a source of information but could potentially contribute and red, to flag indicators for which EO has no contribution to the methodology.
The analysis concluded that, of the current indicator suite, the majority was categorized as red (193) with equal numbers (17) of green and amber indicators respectively (figure 1). When analysed by goal, SDG goals 6 (water), 11 (urban) and 15 (life on land) have been identified as having the most indicators which could benefit from EO, with 6 indicators each. Targets 4 (education), 7 (energy) and 13 (climate change) have only one indicator each which can benefit from EO while Goals 5 (gender), 8 (decent work) and 10 (inequality) have no indicators which can benefit from EO (figure 2). Of the 227 indicators analysed, 13 have published methodologies (tiers I and II) drawing on EO approaches and data and 4 have work plans (tier III) which suggest EO as a source of information. In addition, 14 more published methodologies and 3 work plans are currently not identifying EO as a source of information but there is potential do so.
Further, we closely analysed existing barriers hampering the uptake of EO for SDG reporting across the countries. Among others, these concern the fundamental nature of EO data itself and its limitations with respect to cloud coverage and resolution, non-compliance with indicator reporting calendars, especially in the calculation of historic baselines, spatial data coverage as well as lack of validation – a key issue for meeting the rigours of traditional statistical methods employed in indicator calculation. Also there are financial and institutional barriers, like the dominance of the commercial sector of very high spatial resolution EO data, as well as the limited technical capacity of some countries in terms of data storage and processing.
In order to overcome these barriers we stress the need for a stronger collaboration between National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and geospatial experts, a more complete integration of EO with statistics, as part of an end to end information flow to decision makers. The shift to integration of multiple measuring methods with automation, while still using statistical rigour, will be a challenge to all but the most advanced countries for SDG reporting. Furthermore, commercial restrictions on very high resolution satellite imagery, key for indicators on sustainable urban development and disaster risk reduction in particular, should be lifted to liberate them for use by countries for free in SDG reporting.
For the EO community we propose clear and practical steps that can be taken to assist countries in achieving Agenda 2030: the EO community should begin to recognise the opportunities in assisting custodians in elevating the tier level of tier III methodologies. Our analysis suggests that 7 of the Tier III indicators could be supported by EO, with EO making a definite contribution to 4 of them. Further, new and innovative spatial data infrastructures are key to realising the potential of EO, especially as the volume and complexity of EO data is becoming a limiting factor for traditional desktop computing. An open and freely accessible exploitation tool is therefore important for countries. Having the technical infrastructure for EO data provision in place and improving human capacity to use it is still insufficient without an appropriate governance structure. Governance must be strong enough to support interagency coordination on geospatial and statistical data and collaboration among key SDG stakeholders who use these data for computing indicators at the national level.

The Sustainable development goals (SDGs) consist of 17 goals, subdivided into 169 targets and currently 232 indicators, which pertain to all realms of life and society. While some countries have means to measure these indicators, others lack the data, methods or relevant ministries responsible for specific indicators, which challenges the development of consistent and comparable information. To combat this, the Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) developed the SDG Global Indicator Framework, a Tier based classification system, that categorises indicators into Tier classes of I, II and III based on the level of methodological development and overall data availability (Tier I indicators are conceptually clear and can be computed with existing methods and data, while Tier III have neither no established methods nor any data availability). As of December 2017, the SDGs consists of 93 Tier I indicators, 66 Tier II indicators and 68 Tier III indicators, with 5 indicators with multiple Tier assignments. For the 68 Tier III indicator, there is a lack of established methodology to measure or verify the indicator and data to conduct the analyses.
This motivated the search for alternative data sources into the realm of Satellites and Earth Observation (EO) data. The use of EO data for monitoring and supporting the implementation of the SDGs, targets and indicators is being explored and encouraged by the UN. The United Nations Task Team on Satellite Imagery and Geospatial Data published a report in 2017 regarding the feasibility of using EO data to produce official statistics relevant to SDGs such as agricultural indicators and land cover (United Nations, 2017). There have also been reports by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development, 2017), the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS, March 2018), Copernicus (Copernicus, 2018) and the United Nations office for outer space affairs (UNOOSA; the use of the European Global Navigation satellite system and Copernicus for supporting the SDGs, 2018).
Germany has implemented a national Sustainable Development Strategy which has partly adopted the UNSDGs. The achievement of objectives is evaluated using 63 indicators, which are compiled by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The global framework of achieving the SDGS can, thus, be broken down at the national level in two ways: on one hand national data must be provided to calculate global data/indicators, and on the other hand, the implementation and reporting of the SDGS at the national level must to be accomplished. The indicators are calculated using different data sources, including official statistics, administrative data and other sources. Germany first reported on the national implementation of Agenda 2030 in 2016 and Destatis published its first Indicator report for Germany in the same year. This indicator report presents Germany’s progress towards achieving the German Sustainable development strategy and provides details regarding the development, status and futures of the indicators.
In July 2018, the Cop4SDGs project was launched between the Federal Office of Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) to support the German government in developing procedures for implementing and monitoring the German sustainable development strategy. Cop4SDGs aims to analyse the potential of applying Copernicus data, as well as other EO datasets, to provide national data to monitor and verify the SDG indicators. Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), Cop4SDGs also aims to develop methods for calculating the national indicators using Copernicus and EO data. For this, indicators requiring additional data sources will be identified and Copernicus data or products will be analysed to check the extent to which they can be used to calculate the various indicators. The developed research and methods could, in the future, be used to aid policy making and in the adaptation of other strategies such as for climate change.
Currently, the project is in its initial stage where a systematic analyses of the various SDG indicators and targets is being conducted. For this, the latest indicator report and the report on the national data available for the SDGs from the Destatis (Destatis, 2018) has been analysed to examine those indicators that require additional data. Based on our analyses, national data are not available for 118 indicators (27 Tier I, 41 at Tier II and 50 at Tier III; Figure 1). In addition, the extent to which the various Copernicus data and products can help to calculate the statistics of these indicators is currently being examined and will be presented and discussed. Methods and storymaps for selected indicators will then be developed and presented to help calculate these indicators in the future.

Figure 1. Number of indicators per goal as per the UN (right) and number of indicators that the German Statistical Office (Destatis) could not report in 2016 and 2017 due to lack of data

Rising inequalities and spatial segregation, together with increasing concerns over the distributional impacts of policies, require better information and policy targeting at more local scales. In the environmental policy domain, efforts to address major global environmental challenges have been increasingly compromised in many countries, in part due to perceptions that they "unfairly" impact certain groups of individuals. These reasons have led to a growing interest in the socioeconomic dimension of exposure to environmental risks such as pollution and natural hazards. These concerns are central to the SDGs, including target 1.5 (resilience of the poor to environmental shocks), 3.9 (environmental health) and the related implementation actions, including SDG 10 (inequality) and 11 (cities).

The availability and quality of EO-derived global datasets of environmental risks (like air quality and land, water, flood, temperature and fire-related risks) has vastly improved in recent years, however, internationally comparable information on the relationship between such risks and different social, demographic and economic groups has not kept pace and remains scarce and relatively limited. The benefits of such information are twofold. Firstly, environmental quality and risks impact different socioeconomic groups differently (e.g. through varying resilience to catastrophic events) therefore better socioeconomic information means better understanding of populations at risk and how their exposure to risks has changed over time. Secondly, the characteristics of populations often have effects on local environmental quality (e.g. poverty and increased pressure on land and biodiversity), therefore better socioeconomic data means better identification of areas where the environment is at risk. The small-area statistics required for spatially targeted approaches often exist, particularly for higher-income countries, however they are typically siloed by country and are often not directly comparable which frustrates their use in cross-country analysis. Data integration and new methodologies are needed to support evidence-based policy analysis that accounts for local circumstances.

There are many examples in the literature where the most vulnerable and least resilient populations are found to also be exposed to greater risk (e.g. Park et al., 2018; Hsiang et al., 2017; Fecht et al., 2015). However, this empirical evidence remains patchy and comprehensive cross-country studies are needed that combine data on environmental quality and socio-economic status at a fine level of spatial disaggregation (e.g., census blocks, households or individuals). The major benefit of analyses spanning multiple countries is that they allow the effect of (sub-)national policies on inequality outcomes to be identified.

Building on OECD’s long-standing experience with environmental, social and economic statistics at national and sub-national levels, and its regular engagement with National Statistical Offices and geo-spatial data producers, this project first seeks to integrate and harmomise existing small-area socioeconomic data (e.g. on household and personal income, educational attainment, employment status, migration status and housing) into a single database and use these to: (i) identify and analyse multi-dimensional spatial inequalities in well-being at local and city levels (ii) better characterise the exposure of populations to environmental risks (and relatedly, access to services and amenities) and (iii) better understand the policy and market determinants of inequalities across well-being outcomes and provide advice on how inequalities at the local level could be better addressed, including through both local factors and interactions with national policies.

This presentation would outline the methodological principles needed to ensure data quality and consistency across countries, present initial results, and invite feedback from the EO community about how such socioeconomic datasets could potentially add value in their domains.

Developing and delivering Earth Observation (EO) solutions for regional stakeholders can foster and animate structural change in regional practices and capabilities. The “Utilising Earth Observation to support Blue Growth and Risk Management in the Caribbean” (#EOCaribbean2018 Workshop) course brought together specialists in Blue Growth, climate change adaptation and risk reduction, with experts in EO Data applications to address Caribbean opportunities and challenges, and identify future supports for Caribbean ambitions. The 4-day intensive event took place between the 23rd and 26th January, 2018 in St. Lucia. Government experts in environment, planning, fisheries and natural resources explored the Caribbean’s Blue Growth opportunity, and the risks to any Blue Growth achievements made by island states. They then identified the challenges faced in seizing these opportunities and addressing these risks, exploring and identifying EO-derived information opportunities for their decision support needs.

A highly interactive and dialogue-based approach was used throughout the training-focused event. This not only enhanced knowledge-transfer and learning, but also enabled the participants to identify, express, and clarify their concerns surrounding EO data use, and the restraints on enhanced uptake. Such restraint-discussions extended far beyond the thematic areas examined (fisheries and aquaculture, maritime safety and security, Sargassum, and climate risk). Analysis of the stakeholder data collected over the workshop revealed a number of deeper, more structural issue clusters which need to be addressed. These include issues surrounding data needs, education and training, and recognition that transformative, systematic approaches are required to maximise EO benefits in the region. In addition to the education content, and key Caribbean agency’s increased capacity and awareness regarding the satellite data opportunity, a stakeholder-driven roadmap for the region has been delivered. This roadmap is underpinned by over 100 traceable and transferable actions outlined clearly in the event report, both of which are publically available on the Future Earth Coasts website (www.futureearthcoasts.org/roadmap-caribbean ). These actions address not only the four initial thematic areas, but also the more structural needs of the Caribbean to realise their Blue Growth and Climate Risk goals with the help of satellite-derived information and solution activities.

This presentation highlights the opportunities for strategic deliberation and roadmap development to occur at capacity building events for EO data usage. It demonstrates the potential for targeted activities in the EO solution space, directed at the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), to have a deeper and long-term impact on the very fabric of regional data sharing, cooperation, capacity, and empowerment. In this case the primary focus of the presentation is on supporting the Climate Risk thematic, and in doing so SDGs 13 (Climate Action), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and 3 (Good Health and Well-being). It presents a call for solutions from the #EOCaribbean2018 stakeholders, and offers an opportunity to foster similar activities in other appropriate regions and thematic spaces.

Acknowledgements: This activity was funded by the European Space Agency through the Expansion of EO Uptake in Developing Countries project. It would not have been possible without the support, advice and expertise provided by the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, its Member States, the Government of St. Lucia, the University of South Florida College of Marine Science, ACRI-HE, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, University College Cork, the MaREI Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy, the University of the West Indies, and TERRASIGNA.

The large changes in Arctic and Antarctic climate, on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere, are contributing to an ‘opening up’ of the Polar Regions that has important socio-economic, environmental and security implications. The Arctic Ocean will be increasingly accessible and more broadly used by those seeking the its abundant resources and trade routes. Whilst it may be remote, it is home to some 4 million people and has a US$ 230 billion a year economy and its potential is enormous. In the Antarctic, fisheries and tourism are rapidly developing. Both Polar Regions remain a challenging operating environment with a harsh climate with sea ice and icebergs as a significant natural hazard that requires the need to; improve domain awareness, through EO services and products, to ensure the safe and efficient operations, including Search-and-Rescue (SaR), strong development of the predictive and monitoring capability for key climate indicators such sea ice extent and thickness, and further integration of the European Union’s policy for the Arctic as laid out in their Joint Communication To The European Parliament And The Council.

KEPLER is a multi-partner initiative, built around the operational European Ice Services and Copernicus information providers, to prepare a roadmap for Copernicus to deliver an improved European capacity for monitoring and forecasting the Polar Regions. Following the recommendations of the ‘Copernicus User Uptake’ review, KEPLER has 4 themes of; 1) raising awareness for the Copernicus programme, 2) informing and educating Copernicus users, 3) engaging Copernicus users in public and private sector, and 4) enabling access to Copernicus data and information. These themes form the core components of KEPLER. However, as the Polar Regions are changing, so too are the challenges and opportunities. Because of these shifts there are two additional themes that encompass the evolving needs; 5) identification of research gaps regarding integration/assimilation, and 6) improved sea-ice mapping and forecasting. KEPLER will therefore provide the mechanism for understanding the research opportunities for sea ice and icebergs that can provide a better understanding of the environment, establishing of new industry sectors and startups, and importantly empowering citizens.

Through these 6 themes KEPLER aims to release the full potential of Polar Regions Earth Observation, including from ESA and EUMETSAT, by identifying and eliminating the barriers that impede the use of the tremendous resource that is Copernicus. Our objective with KEPLER is to enable the broad range of Polar Regions stakeholders to be equipped with the most accurate and relevant, environmental information so that they can seize the many benefits that Copernicus products generate for society and economy. To ensure the sustainable development of the environmentally fragile Polar Regions, there is a need to ensure that the activities of day-to-day life, such as travel and resource exploitation, are safe and efficient through the provision of high quality, accurate satellite-based products and services​. To do this we need to identify and better understand the remote sensing products and potential innovative solutions and services​ these stakeholders need.

EO can support the development and application of the SDGs in two key ways. The first is as input to the formal indicators of progress towards the SDGs; these continue to be developed and EOs have a large role in many of them. The second, more fundamental, way is in improving the policies and decisions relevant to the goals—these policies and decisions are what determine whether progress towards a goal is actually made. In this paper we discuss the gap that exists between EO-based products and the policy and decision makers, here called applications users, that can benefit from them.

A huge amount of EO data of value to the SDGs exists, and the volume continues to increase. However, the products and formats that are most commonly available often require levels of expertise in EO data processing that typical applications users don’t have. This limits the impact that EO data can have on progress towards the SDGs. There are several ways to bridge this gap, extract more value from the EO data, and apply it towards progress for the SDGs.

One way is to provide more, and more highly derived, products, for example Level 3 and above, tailored to the specific needs of the target community or goals. Developing such products requires close interaction with that target community so that its needs are understood and can be addressed in the actual product. More higher-level, derived products will help fill the gap between EO data and applications users, but by themselves are usually not sufficient—they must be provided in a context that supports their understanding and application to the problem at hand. That context can be provided by a website with appropriate tools oriented towards the target users’ needs, what we here call a Community Exploration Platform. This is very different from a data portal--those are useful for users who need and understand data and how to process it--but an applications user needs understanding, not the data.

Thus a Community Exploration Platform provides tools so a user can easily explore the data and understand its implications for the work they are doing—good policies and decisions cannot be made without good understanding. Tools that visually show trends in key variables and help the user understand the cause of those trends are one of the most important. Other types of visualization tools are also important, as are communication tools so results and decisions can be effectively shared. In this presentation we will discuss the qualities that a Community Exploration Platform should have, show some existing examples, and review some of the challenges in developing them.


The research described in this paper was in part carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA; government sponsorship acknowledged.