Flash Talks continued

The project aimed to use satellite-based techniques to identify regions that have undergone surface subsidence. To accomplish this, it outlined three objectives: • To calculate surface subsidence in the study area between 2018 and 2021. • To identify and analyze identified subsidence anomalies within the demarcated site. • To use this information as input into the Planned Railway Infrastructure Extension route option development The project accurately detected and evaluated surface subsidence using interferometry methodology from Sentinel-1 C data. Such a process involved a thorough analysis of two radar datasets to identify changes in elevation within specific locations. By applying this approach, we identified areas with significant ground movements. We carefully examined the subsidence data for the 2018-2021 period. We then calculated the total annual subsidence by computing the sum subsidence for each period. Our findings showed that the surface subsidence rate was between 2cm to 5 cm per year.

Increasing threats of biodiversity and ecosystems under climate and societal changes are at the central of scientific and societal challenges. To convene scientists, institutions, and practitioners for developing observations of biodiversity and ecosystem services to address those challenges, biodiversity observation networks are organized at local, national, regional and global scales. This This session introduces APBON’s variety of activities: Launching ‘master sites’ for integrated monitoring methods and interdisciplinary research; Promoting problem-solving approaches with filling observational and knowledge gaps by integrating technologies and platforms; Promoting data and knowledge sharing by networking the observation networks and collaboration with partner organizations based on the regional gap finding survey and analysis; Delivering capacity development platform through stakeholder engagement at multi scales.

Ai Songtao (Wuhan University)

The Antarctic is key to the destiny of mankind sustainable development, and has become hot spot to the international community. Nowadays there are various data from different observation platforms, such as satellite, airplane, UAV and field work. It’s not easy to use the data to describe or analyze the change or human effect from single or several ways. A polar spatial-temporal information platform, named after PolarGo, was designed and developed by professor Songtao Ai from the Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University, China. This platform is committed to providing public polar product with 3D earth visualization, integrating the polar information on environment and human activities, visualizing the real-time polar activities and their spatial-temporal changes. More than twenty countries’ polar footprints are collecting into this platform, including China, France, Russia, UK, US and so on.

An overview presentation of the achievements of the GEOGLAM community over the past decade. Highlighting the path from research to operation and the community’s co design approach for uptake of best practices in agricultural monitoring.

Michael Wellington (DE-Africa)

This presentation will outline findings from the Information for Agriculture, Food, and Water Security project led by Digital Earth Africa and funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. The project conducted consultations in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda to better understand the Earth Observation needs of the agriculture sector across the African continent. A Roadmap was developed from these consultations which identifies pathways to impact, specific development opportunities, and outlines a proposed co-design process to ensure the needs of smallholder farmers are served.

Inspired by a discussion with the GEO in situ data working group and funded by the European Commission the partners of TEMBO will provide free and open in situ data on weather, water and climate and increase to number of meteorological stations in Africa. To generate enough revenue to realise this, TEMBO offers three services: germination insurance for smallholder farmers (in this way farmers do not lose the whole harvest because they have no money to replace the lost seeds when the onset of the rainy season is delayed), floods early warning (to save lives and assets) and dam reservoir management for hydropower stations (to save resources and ensure a reliable power supply). TEMBO aims at developing sensor networks that are ten times cheaper than the conventional ones.

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS), one of the six Copernicus services, provides information and analysis for all the phases of the disaster risk management cycle, i.e. prevention, preparedness, response and recovery by combining satellite, model, and in-situ data. It provides on-demand detailed information for selected emergencies that arise from natural or man-made disasters anywhere in the world through its On-Demand Mapping component. But it also offers critical early-warning and monitoring information at a European and global level through continuous observations and forecasts for floods, wildfires and droughts through systems like the European and Global Flood Awareness Systems, European and Global Drought Observatories or the European Forest Fire Information System. Copernicus Emergency Management Service is synergistic with GEO. The Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) is a joint initiative of the GEO and the Copernicus Work Programs. The Exposure Mapping component of CEMS releases the Copernicus Global Human Settlement Layer that is an important dataset for GEO Human Planet Initiative, EO4SDGs, and the EO Toolkit for Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements. For the past 10 years, CEMS has been continuously evolving to bring the latest technology into disaster risk management. The flash talk will provide highlight use cases where CEMS products were used by national services, international organizations, and local responders to save lives and reduce the impact of disasters as well as an overview of the most recent new developments of CEMS.

Ariesta Ningrum (UNFCCC Secretariat), Lennox Gladden (National Climate Change Office of Belize)

UNFCCC experts highlight the role of climate technology -hardware, software, orgware- in improving disaster risk management and climate resilience with country perspectives from SIDS. The talk will highlight exciting developments from the collaboration of the GEO and UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee (TEC) on a joint publication that will showcase innovations, tools and technologies for improving disaster risk knowledge that could assist developing countries in formulating scientifically-sound and evidence-based climate policies, plans and funding proposals and implementing them on the ground.

WG Africa project is a joint effort of 12 national institutions from 8 European countries aiming at leveraging the use of Copernicus Data in Africa thanks to a training of trainer’s program funded by the European Commission and implemented in three languages (French, Portuguese, English). Its objective is to support African academic or private trainers wanting to integrate in their training offer or curricula Copernicus based modules. It comes as a complement to the programs carried out by European and African institutions such as GMES & Africa to develop capacities in Africa in the sector of Earth Observation from space.

Takahiro Konami (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan)

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan supports the development of flood risk mapping using satellite data in the Southeast Asian countries. The presenter shares the insights on this new effort.

Ali S. Akanda (University of Rhode Island), Antarpreet S. Jutla (University of Florida)

The presenters’ team focuses on combining the power of earth observations and smartphone applications to directly deliver high level technical information on water and waterborne disease to improve risk communication with stakeholders such as decision makers and field workers. In a changing global environment and the increasing risk of hydroclimatic extremes and large coastal storms in countries such as Mozambique, Malawi, Bangladesh, and Myanmar – we need to develop a new way to improve the communication of water, disasters, and health risk to vulnerable populations by utilizing the power of earth observations and other communication technologies. This flashtalk presents a novel approach to combine high resolution geospatial risk maps with smartphone applications on water quantity (scarcity and floods), quality (nutrients and pathogens), quantity (floods and droughts), and waterborne disease (cholera) risk to empower decision makers and field workers. In a disaster setting or in extreme climates, geocoded environmental and services information is key; however, these are very difficult to obtain for field hospitals, public health workers, environmental policy makers, or government level decision makers. By combining earth observations-derived geospatial risk models and smartphone-based applications targeted for specific audiences, we can improve information access and disaster risk communication for public health emergencies and help empower grassroots organizations and disadvantaged communities.

From satellite and in situ observation, to monitoring and forecasting services, to data access and cloud services, to marine and coastal derived applications and services: the EU4OceanObs project is producing case studies that showcases the full Ocean Observations (OO) value chain supporting GEO Blue Planet actions highlighting Europe’s contribution to support thematic areas with significant socioeconomic and environmental impacts for coastal communities. These include i) marine debris, ii) Sargassum inundation events iv) eutrophication and to support v) sustainable fisheries management.  Each case study explores good practices to raise awareness for the essential role of ocean and coastal observations in responding to associated societal challenges. Identifying gaps in observation, monitoring and forecasting, and data access, the case studies also put forward recommendations to address these gaps. From policy makers, national and local authorities, to blue economy actors and maritime security, to coastal communities, different end users will be able to see and understand the direct benefits of the OO value chain and the need for ocean and coastal observing and forecasting. 

Mikko Strahlendorff (Finnish Meteorological Institute - FMI), Sakka Anna-Marja Persson (Saami Council)

People living or acting in the Arctic, as well as science and policy in the Arctic are confronted with a rapidly changing environment, and are in need of observations tailored to their needs to tackle the questions they are facing in this situation. Satellite and modelling have a plethora of products available to Arctic life, but their usefulness is still unknown for many. The Shared Arctic Variables (SAVs) principles build on the concept of the Essential Variables (EVs), which have made great coordinated advancements in global monitoring of key parameters. Establishing a framework for developing the most relevant and impactful variables to be observed must take into account indigenous, local, regional and global needs and this is the goal of the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks’ (SAON) Roadmap for Arctic Observing and Data Systems (ROADS). The principles for the ROADS process include that Indigenous Peoples’ equitable partnership and funding for their active participation is critical to ROADS.

James Saunders (Swift Geospatial)

Will be focusing on using open satellite imagery such as Sentinel-2, 3rd party data as well as commercial Planet satellite imagery to measure verify and report on deforestation. The talk will focus on building a robust scalable deforestation monitoring solution in an effort to support sustainability by shining a spotlight on deforestation caused by commodities (cocoa, vanilla, etc). Presenting on a deforestation monitoring approach using satellite sensor fusion. Mix and match of various earth observation monitoring satellites to achieve the goal of large area deforestation monitoring and verification. The presentation will revolve around the sensor selection and methodology.

A presentation on the Latin America and Caribbean Initiative (LACI) pilot activities. LACI is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Global Change Research Program and U.S. Group on Earth Observations (USGEO) and regional partners, including AmeriGEO and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Its overarching vision is to provide opportunities for partnerships between Caribbean, Latin American, and North American countries to enhance capacity for climate risk and vulnerability assessments that would support local and regional decision-making in response to climate change impacts. LACI is grounded in co-design with the following anticipated overarching activities: partnership building and fostering, peer-to-peer learning and training, and data synthesis and analysis.

This session will showcase the progress made by the Pacific Islands Advisory Group (PIAG) to promote and use Earth observation (EO) across the Pacific Island Countries and Territories, including strengthening the regional EO community through different initiatives. It will also present the current priorities and opportunities to further support this work.

Marie Smith (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - CSIR)

A brief introduction to the GEO AquaWatch Initiative will be followed by recent high-profile Impact Stories in water quality, and highlights on current and future activities that might interest members to participate in – including the potential for development of a Water Quality Forecasting and Information Service.

Gabriel Daldegan (Conservation International), Bernd Eversmann (German Agency for International Cooperation - GIZ)

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has proposed a conceptual framework for mapping land degradation and monitoring progress toward SDG 15.3.1 and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) interventions. This framework relies on standardized methodologies using Earth Observation (EO) datasets that provide spatially explicit information on biophysical variables over time. Currently, default global data for assessing land productivity are derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. These sensors have been collecting imagery since 2000, making significant contributions to scientific advancements and enabling global-scale analysis of biophysical variables. However, a recent change in the Terra satellite’s orbit height may impact MODIS data collection, potentially leading to observation gaps and larger shadows. Consequently, there is a need to explore viable EO alternatives to ensure the continuity of global land degradation monitoring. To address this challenge, a science-based sensitivity study is proposed to evaluate the transition from MODIS data to alternative sensors, such as VIIRS, in 2023. While transitioning to medium spatial resolution VIIRS imagery is an option, there is growing demand for finer resolution datasets for sub-national applications. Efforts are underway to develop datasets representing land productivity and land cover sub-indicators recommended for monitoring SDG 15.3.1 and LDN. These datasets are based on EO data collected by sensors aboard Sentinel satellites, including Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instruments A&B, which offer a finer spatial resolution of 10 meters. This study aims to explore these alternative EO data sources and harmonize moderate-resolution baseline data with fine spatial resolution time series to ensure robust and continuous land degradation monitoring.