Future Earth

Group on Earth Observations – GEO Week 2023

Statement of Future Earth

Future Earth wholeheartedly supports the role of GEO in coordinating the observational community across a range of environmental and societal issues. Future Earth is a global network of scientists, researchers, and innovators collaborating for a more sustainable planet. 

Our vision is of a sustainable and equitable world for all, where societal decisions are informed by openly-accessible and shared knowledge: values that align well with GEO’s vision.The Future Earth community is involved in many GEO activities, in particular GEO BON, through its Global Research Projects and Research initiatives.

Future Earth supports GEO through appointing Faten Attig  Bahar, who serves on Future Earth’s Governing Council, as liaison to the GEO post 2025 working group. The Post-2025 Working Group was established at the 57th Executive Committee meeting in March 2022 to develop strategic recommendations for the future evolution of GEO. The Working Group is made up of 28 members selected based on the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion from within the GEO community and partners.

The bioDISCOVERY network of Future Earth is a strong supporter and implementer of GEO BON.  The network collaborated with the GEO BON initiative in 2022 on a set of policy briefings and publications for CBD COP15. The two networks also held a joint workshop at the World Biodiversity Forum in June 2022, to discuss how to improve the flow of information from biodiversity monitoring & research into guiding action (Gonzalez et al, 2023). A follow up workshop is planned for WBF 2024.

The partnership between ESA and Future Earth is a key mechanism by which Future Earth is building stronger links between research activities in our networks and GEO’s initiatives, by funding a program of EO activities to explore research avenues and build capacity and demonstrator tools. The Joint ESA-Future Earth Program supported the bioDISCOVERY workshop with GEO BON in June 2022.

The Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) engages with GEO through its contribution to GEO Mountains. It co-led the identification of a set of Essential Biodiversity Variables for assessing change in mountains together with the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI). This effort was initiated through a common workshop held at EGU in 2023. GMBA further supports the vision of GEO BON by promoting biodiversity observation efforts that contribute to the effective management of mountain biodiversity and mountain ecosystems worldwide.

GEO BON is working with Future Earth Canada and Sustainability in the Digital Age to conduct a survey of expert perceptions on the use of AI for biodiversity and ecosystem management to spark dialogue, identify knowledge gaps, and support the growth of a multi-sectoral community toward meeting the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. This will contribute to a white paper assessing the opportunities and challenges of AI for biodiversity measurement and reporting, and inform recommendations for effective corporate reporting.

The oneHEALTH project is closely involved in developing biodiversity and health monitoring guidance with GEO BON. By using Earth Observations (EO), especially land use land cover mappings using Sentinel-2 images, environmental degradation layers will be incorporated in a health indicator. This indicator will allow the monitoring of the ecosystem services provided by ecosystems that are related to human health. Every oneHEALTH project uses EO to integrate the environmental aspects - such as forest degradation, forest loss and land use change - affecting human health.

Future Earth’s Sustainable Water Future Programme and Water-Energy-Food (W-E-F) NEXUS Project facilitated a concerted and comprehensive endeavor to investigate the intricate interplay between water resources, hydropower generation, land utilization, and socioeconomic systems. This collaborative effort aimed to illuminate the far-reaching societal implications of hydropower plant developments on a global scale (Fan et al., 2022). The NEXUS KAN is establishing its international project office in Hainan, China, and is keen to collaborate with GEO's initiatives such as GEOGlows and AquaWatch.

References

Gonzalez, A., Vihervaara, P., Balvanera, P. et al. A global biodiversity observing system to unite monitoring and guide action. Nat Ecol Evol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02171-0

Fan, P., Cho, M. S., Lin, Z., Ouyang, Z., Qi, J., Chen, J., & Moran, E. F. (2022). Recently constructed hydropower dams were associated with reduced economic production, population, and greenness in nearby areas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(8), e2108038119.