SDGs and Earth Observation Transforming our World: The 2030 Plan for Global Action - Article 76: We will promote transparent and accountable scaling-up of appropriate public-private cooperation to exploit the contribution to be made by a wide range of data, including Earth observation and geo-spatial information, while ensuring national ownership in supporting and tracking progress.

Positioning geospatial information to address global challenges EO4SDG   INITIATIVE  CO-­‐CHAIRS   Eduardo  De  La  Torre   Mexico/INEGI     Chu  Ishida   Japan/JAXA     Lawrence  Friedl   USA/NASA     EXECUTIVE  SECRETARY   Argyro  Kavvada   USA/NASA-­‐BAH Partners: FAO, GPSDD, IISD, SDSN, UNCCD, UNECE, UNECA, UN ECLAC, UN Environment, UN ESCAP, UNFCCC, UN-GGIM, UNISDR, UNSD, WFP, WHO, WMO EO4SDG   Organize  and  realize  the  potential  of   Earth  observations  and  geospatial   information  to  advance  the  UN  2030   Agenda  and  enable  societal  benefits   through  achievement  of  the  SDGs.   Key  Emphasis:   Collaboration  with  statistical   community,  national  statistical   offices,  line  ministries  and  custodian   agencies.  Also,  communication  role   in  federated  approach  to  GEO   community Projects Develop, validate and deploy uses of Earth observations to support SDG tracking and reporting Capacity Building Build skills for accessing and applying Earth observations data Data and Information Products Advance discoverability and accessibility of products Outreach and Engagement Promote the consideration and adoption of Earth observations for the SDGs

Missions: Why GEOGLOWS: Water sustainability is a critical issue in sustainable development and for the achievement of the SDGs. Poor awareness and use of the available and evolving data (incl. from earth observation) and analytical services especially in the developing world. Strong need to improve open, public-domain access to critical data and analytical services Need for improved partnerships to improve quality of supply of services and connect to demand of end-users. Missions: To connect the demand for sound and timely environmental information to the supply of data and information about the Earth’s water system and to explore the science needed to achieve the goals outlined in the initiative. To advocate for broad, open data policies. To help ensure that the data collected through national, regional and global observing systems is both made available in the public domain and applied to decision-making. Science, applications, product development If we take the outcome of the GEO Plenary between the Swiss Government and GEOGLOWS, in which the Swiss government is providing support to GEOGLOWS to advance the development of the Essential Water Variables, then a concrete recommendation to strengthen the monitoring process in a way to benefit ALL national efforts, is to recommend that GEOGLOWS takes into consideration the outcomes of this event (including the lessons learned from the work in the Netherlands and Switzerland) as part of GEOGLOWS coordination, and that includes not only scientists defining the EWV, but also other communities (e.g., economist, legal, water resource decision-makers, etc.    We may want to outline the issues that the review of EWVs will address including the observations required for SDG monitoring in both the water quantity and the water quality areas the requirements for these data to meet real time (daily, hourly) responses to events affecting the SDGs as well as longer term monitoring requirements for the SDGs the links between EWVs and ECVs and the ways in which they can be complementary. EWVs and observations Data dissemination, portals & capacity building Socio-Economic issues and Policy linkages GEOGLOWS Review of EWVs will include: The observations required for SDG monitoring in both the water quantity and the water quality areas The requirements for these data to meet real time (daily, hourly) responses to events affecting the SDGs as well as longer term monitoring requirements for the SDGs The links between EWVs and ECVs and the ways in which they can be complementary.

DANE  Pilot  Project   National  Administrative  Department  of  Statistics  in  Colombia   Pilot project using EO to examine SDG11, Indicator 11.3.1 Ratio of land consumption to population growth DANE  developed  a  method  that   incorporates  freely  available   Landsat  images  with  population   data  to  investigate  the  relationship   between  land  consumption  and   population  growth  in  the   Barranquilla  Metropolitan  Area   (MA)  in  northern  Colombia.     hTp://eo4sdg.org/wp-­‐content/uploads/2017/08/4.-­‐ Report_Pilot_Project_Colombia_v3-­‐1.pdf