EO Solutions to Support Countries Implementing the SDGs

Dear Colleagues,

The international community recently engaged in an ambitious universal agenda on sustainable development with the aim to end poverty, promote prosperity and people’s well-being while protecting the environment. The 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development ratified by the UN General Assembly in September 2015 is a new transformative and integrated development agenda that will drive the global agenda on sustainable development till 2030 and beyond. In total 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets were adopted by the world leaders, which later got translated into 232 indicators that collectively provide a management tool for countries to implement development strategies and report on progress toward the SDG targets. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development clearly stresses the importance of Geospatial Information and Earth Observations (EO) to monitor progress and achieve the SDG targets. Effective monitoring of the SDG indicators and reporting of the progresses towards the SDG targets require the use of multiple types of data that go well beyond the traditional socio-economic data that countries have been exploiting to assess their development policies. Hence, it is considered of crucial importance to integrate data coming from technologies new to this domain, such as EO, in order to produce high-quality and timely information, with more detail, at higher frequencies, and with the ability to disaggregate development indicators. EO, together with modern data processing and analytics, offer unprecedented opportunities to make a quantum leap in the capacities of countries to efficiently track all facets of sustainable development.

Amongst all the SDG targets, those related to a sustainable use of natural resources are of particular importance since pressures on our planet’s environment and finite resources are expected to increase further in the future to support continued economic growth or increased food production and consumption patterns. Recent advances in EO research, both on methodological development and technological solutions, offer promising prospects for helping countries set up informed and evidence-based development policies for an optimum management of terrestrial, coastal and marine resources.

This Special Issue aims at presenting and showcasing the latest advances in EO solutions for supporting countries in better achieving their SDG targets, monitoring progress and reporting on the SDG global indicator framework. The papers of this Special Issue will aim at presenting the state of research, with practical cases having a potential for national implementation. Emphasis is put on those SDG targets and indicators that are related to the sustainable use of natural resources. Examples of existing/ongoing national implementation are also welcome.

The increasing spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions of EO data offer an invaluable opportunity for better informing development policies and quantifying various SDG indicators. However, those EO advances pose several challenges related to the acquisition, processing, integration, analysis and understanding of the data which need to be tackled by the scientific community in order to ensure operational applicability.

Instead of theoretical desktop studies, we seek articles about:

• Robust EO methods for supporting countries in setting development policies (including national targets), monitoring progress toward SDG targets, and reporting on SDG indicators;
• Multi-source data integration methods (e.g., active/passive remote sensing, optical/microwave, EO/in situ, socio-economic);
• EO algorithms and workflows for quantifying SDG indicators related to natural resources;
• Modelling and data assimilation methods for SDG monitoring;
• Innovative and dedicated EO tools (e.g., on-line platforms, data cubes, open source software, teaching material, etc.).
• EO solutions to address SDG interlinkages, trade-offs and complementariness (one EO solution – many SDG targets).

These articles shall address, but are not limited to, SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG 13 (climate action); SDG 14 (life below water) and SDG 15 (life on land).

Where relevant, the articles should tackle the aspects of accuracy, validation, standardisation, limitations and transferability for an easy and seamless integration in national processes and systems.

All articles shall have a practical demonstration in a country, preferably with the involvement of national governmental or scientific authorities.

We hope that this Special Issue will deliver scientific and practical solutions that can be exploited by countries in the setting and implementation of their SDG related actions.

Dr. Zoltán Vekerdy
Mr. Marc Paganini
Dr. Argyro Kavvada
Ms. Andiswa Mlisa
Dr. Christoph Aubrecht
Guest Editors

Deadline for Full Paper Submission: 15 May 2019

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