Earth Observation-Based Ecosystem Services in Support of Planet SDGs

Dear Colleagues,

The Topic Editors of “Earth Observation-based Ecosystem Services in Support of Planet SDGs” understand that this is a challenging subject, which focuses on providing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the most advanced Earth Observation (EO) techniques applied to ecosystem services, in accordance with the trend of significant agencies such as ESA, FAO, GEO, etc. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have combined their efforts to help achieve the SDGs, strengthening their collaboration to generate and share data and information to better support the achievement of the SDGs. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Earth Observations for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Initiative enable GEO and the Earth Observation community to contribute to the 2030 Agenda. The main objective of this initiative is to organise and harness the potential of Earth observations and geospatial information, advancing the 2030 Agenda and enabling societal benefits through the achievement of the Planet SDGs. This initiative supports efforts to integrate Earth observations and geospatial information into national SDG development and monitoring frameworks.

The improvement in analytical development of EO techniques is a result of the evolution of new analytical methods/algorithms in an automated processing environment. This includes multi-sensor data fusion, cloud-based infrastructures, big data techniques, deep learning/machine learning, artificial intelligence, data semantics, etc. In short, the aim has been to process a larger amount of data more quickly, as well as to apply learning techniques to automate processing while maintaining sufficient quality parameters. One of the major challenges in this field is that of data heterogeneity, since data are gathered and integrated from multiple, disparate sources. Over the last decade, research in Knowledge Engineering (KE) resulted in important achievements in reconciling data semantics, with ontologies and ontology-backed knowledge graphs at the forefront.

Ecosystem services are the multitude of benefits that nature provides to society. They make human life possible by providing nutritious food and clean water; regulating disease and the climate; supporting crop pollination and soil formation; and offering recreational, cultural and spiritual benefits. Ecosystems provide four types of services, namely provisioning services (the material benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, such as food, water, fibre, timber and fuel; regulating services (the benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes, e.g., regulation of air quality and soil fertility, flood and disease control; and crop pollination); supporting services (those which are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services, e.g., providing living space for plants and animals, enabling species diversity and maintaining genetic diversity); and cultural services (the non-material benefits that people derive from ecosystems, e.g., inspiration for aesthetic manifestations and engineering works, cultural identity and spiritual well-being).

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlighted the importance of geospatial information and Earth observations (including satellite observations) for reporting on SDG targets and indicators. Effective monitoring of SDG indicators requires the use of multiple types of data that surpass the traditional socio-economic data that countries have exploited to assess their development policies thus far. Satellite observations, with their global spatial coverage and high frequency of observations, are essential for capturing important aspects of sustainable development, particularly the environmental dimension of the SDGs.

Planet SDGs set the goal of protecting the planet "so that it can meet the needs of present and future generations". Climate change has a direct and fundamental relationship with global development. The world is facing a climate emergency that is outpacing our efforts to address it. The rate of global emissions has escalated, and at the current rate, global warming is likely to reach at least 1.5ºC between 2030 and 2052, with significant risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth. Without rapid and comprehensive intervention, these impacts will worsen.

Climate change is an obstacle to achieving the SDGs and disproportionately affects the poor. Global warming is expected to reduce crop yields in many areas, exacerbating food insecurity, malnutrition and stunting in poor communities. Achieving the key Planet SDGs can also play a role in combating climate change, but only if they are achieved in a climate-compatible way.

In summation, Earth Observation-based Ecosystem Services in Support of Planet SDGS aims to highlight the benefits of Earth observation technologies for quantification and monitoring of multiple ecosystem functions and services designed to help us achieve sustainable development. It will provide a multidisciplinary reference that explicitly covers the use of remote sensing to quantify and monitor multiple ecosystem services for the benefit of sustainable development goals. The objective is not to exhaustively cover all possible ecosystem services, but to provide a comprehensive overview of the most relevant remote sensing approaches involved in estimating key ecosystem services from satellite data.

Prof. Dr. Ernesto López-Baeza
Dr. Ana Perez Hoyos
Dr. Carlos Doménech
Dr. Francisco García-Sánchez
Topic Editors