CEOS and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all".
Satellite Earth observations provide a unique view of our world and provide substantial amounts of data that facilitate new methods and provide new insights for the Sustainable Development Goals and their Indicators.
CEOS is supporting the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) to advance the uptake of Earth Observations (EO) in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development. CEOS has selected a limited set of SDGs to focus initial efforts. It is expected this list will expand in time.
Information on this page remains a draft in progress.
CEOS has prepared two high-level documents regarding its activity on the SDGs:
What CEOS can do to support the U.N. 2030 Agenda and the SDGs
CEOS expectations for the GEO Secretariat regarding support of the SDGs
For more information on how CEOS is coordinating its efforts on the Sustainable Development Goals, see the CEOS website.
The tables below summarise the requirements; stakeholders; relevant missions; and tools, services, and derived products for each of these target SDG Indicators.
Requirements
The high-level measurement requirements for each SDG.
Stakeholders
The key SDG stakeholders that manage SDGs. These stakeholders are the primary connection to CEOS.
Missions
These are the primary CEOS missions relevant to each SDG. These missions have global coverage and sustained time series. Links are provided to the CEOS Missions, Instruments and Measurements Database (MIM DB).
Tools, Services, Derived Products
These tools and services use CEOS satellite data and provide direct outputs for SDG users.
SDG Indicator 6.6.1: Change in the extent of water-related ecosystems
SDG Indicator 11.3.1: Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate
Tools, Services, Derived Products
Trends.EarthGlobal Human Settlement Built-up
Global Urban Footprint (GUF)
World Settlement Footprint (WSF)
Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL)
ESA Urban TEP
Earth Observations Toolkit for Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements
POPGRID Viewer
DE Africa SDG Notebooks
SDG Indicator 14.1.1a: Index of coastal eutrophication and floating plastic debris density
SDG Indicator 15.3.1: Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area
EO Enabling Infrastructure to Support SDGs
CEOS has developed a non-exhaustive list of commonly-used Earth Observation (EO) enabling infrastructures that use free and open EO datasets. Many of these resources broadly address the SDGs while a few are more focused on a single SDG. In addition, many of these resources are free and open to all users. Feedback on this table should be directed to: info@lists.ceos.org
| Infrastructure | Provider(s) | Website | Description | Strengths | Limitations | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Earth Engine | Link | A widely used platform with many satellite datasets and a programming interface. | Free/open, large user community | Unorganized community, no single sharing platform, commercial control | All SDGs | |
| Open Data Cube (ODC) | CEOS, Open Earth Alliance | Link | A data management infrastructure used by Australia and Africa to manage satellite data. | Open Source Software, growing users and application notebooks | Requires installation and data indexing | All SDGs |
| OpenEO Platform | ESA | Link | A data processing and analysis framework based on open source software | Open Source Software, data cube concept, common tools and datasets, unlimited use for ESA projects | Limited use for non-ESA projects, limited datasets | All SDGs |
| Trends.Earth | Conservation International | Link | A data analysis tool focused on land degradation and urbanization | Focused application products, Multiple languages | Requires QGIS integration | SDG 15.3.1 (land degradation), SDG 11.3.1 (urbanization) |
| CEOS MIM Database | CEOS | Link | Extensive database of CEOS satellite resources | Significant detail of current and planned missions | Only civil space assets, no data access | All SDGs |
| CEOS COVE Tool | CEOS | Link | Satellite coverage visualization and analysis tool | Extensive set of orbit analysis tools, well-documented with use-cases | Only CEOS missions, connected to only common archives, no access | All SDGs |
| Digital Earth Africa | SANSA | Link | A free/open enabling data platform and program to support Africa users | Focus on Africa countries, pre-processed continental data products, Jupyter notebook platform, capacity-building program | Only focused on Africa | All SDGs |
| EASI Hub | CSIRO | Link | A high-performance scaleable cloud-based analytics platform based on the Open Data Cube | AWS Cloud, Customisable, Scalable, excellent for service platforms | Paid service | All SDGs |
| Sentinel Hub | ESA, Sinergise | Link | A cloud-based API and toolset for satellite imagery | Ease of use, powerful EO browser with integrated products, library of application scripts | Paid service, primarily focused on Sentinel datasets | All SDGs |
| Dynamic World | Google, WRI | Link | A near real-time land cover analysis system providing land class information | Free/open, near real time, 10m resolution | Only uses Sentinel-2 TOA data, requires Earth Engine access | All SDGs (land focus) |
| SEPAL | FAO | Link | A data access, processing and analysis system for land monitoring | Open source, linked to Earth Engine datasets, Jupyter notebook interface | Access requires approval, beta-level project funded by Govt. of Norway | All SDGs (focus on deforestation) |
| RAPP | CSIRO | Link | A spatial data platform for rangelands and pasture productivity | Global monthly fractional cover maps and rainfall, open architecture, focus on Australia | Limited to MODIS (500m) resolution | SDG 2 (Agriculture) |
| Euro Data Cube | ESA | Link | A cloud-based data access, processing and analysis tool | Efficient access, includes a marketplace of services, some free options | Paid service, primarily focused on Sentinel datasets | All SDGs |
| Data and Information Access Services (DIAS) | European Commission (Copernicus) | Link | Five (5) cloud-based platforms enabling access to Copernicus data and analysis tools | Cloud operation, access to commercial datasets, efficient connection to Sentinel data | Advanced use requires payment, limited non-Copernicus datasets | All SDGs |