Ag Earth Observations for UN Sustainable Development Goals
The Harvest Leadership Team including Alyssa Whitcraft, Inbal Becker-Reshef, and Christopher Justice along with Harvest partner Ian Jarvis [GEOGLAM] and colleagues Lauren Gifford [CU Boulder] and Argyro Kavvada [NASA HQ] published their work, “No pixel left behind: Toward integrating Earth Observations for agriculture into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework”, in the Remote Sensing of Environment on October 31, 2019.
The United Nations launched its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, building upon lessons learned from the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, with the motto: “No one left behind.” Their paper details how GEOGLAM activities and Earth Observation (EO) more broadly contribute to attaining and measuring progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper argues that in order to attain the SDGs, and in order for countries to report on their progress toward the Goals and targets, they must be able to utilize low-cost, low-latency methods and data for multiple purposes.
Earth observations (EO) are a highly valuable tool in agricultural monitoring for production, food security, and sustainable agricultural practices. Despite this fact, EO data use is not evenly or broadly applied in national agricultural statistics. One contributing factor to this uneven data usage is the fact that communication and collaborative efforts are lacking between research scientists and policy makers. This “siloing” effect is common and a true challenge for global development that must be addressed proactively by funding and mandated reporting agencies alike.
With all of these factors in mind, the Harvest team and partners detail today’s usage of EO data and tools and its potential improved future use in supporting the SDGs, focusing on the activities of the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) Initiative. Specifically, GEOGLAM contributes to SGD Goals 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 13, 15, and 17:
Goal 1: No Poverty
Goal 2: Zero Hunger
Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being
Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Goal 13: Climate Action
Goal 15: Life on Land
Goal 17: Partnerships
Read the full, open access article to learn more about how Harvest and GEOGLAM are contributing to sustainable agricultural land use and production through the use of EO data, tools, and collaborative activities.