1. Towards Essential Agricultural Variables:
Beyond research, another fundamental aspect of GEOGLAM is our very effective relationship with the public space agencies managed through our interaction with CEOS
GEOGLAM Data to Address Policy Drivers
- G20, Markets, SDG’s, Paris Accord, and Sendai

2. The Challenge
Since GEOGLAM started three major international agreements have been developed and almost all nations have signed on (Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Accord for climate and Sendai for disasters), our working environment has become more challenging
SDG’s alone the world has agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets supported by 230 indicators, each one relying on existing and new multiple data streams for its development. Ultimately information must be integrated across science domains to achieve the goals
Agriculture is a small but important part of this complex picture, and GEOGLAM can make a significant contribution
In order to rise to the challenge it is clear we need a way to reduce complexity, and engage the policy communities as well as other science domains
Further confounding the picture there are over seven hundred multi-lateral environment agreements, and many more addressing social and economic development, all with their own monitoring schemes

3. Essential Agriculture Variables: More Than a Buzzword
The concept of Essential Variables (EV’s) comes from complex systems theory and simply stated they are the minimum set of fundamental variables required to characterize state and change in a system.
In the context of GEOGLAM, Essential Agricultural Variables (EAV’s) are the minimum set of variables our community requires to understand state and change in agricultural systems to meet our mandate mission, as such they are already the building blocks of the information we produce.
From a practical standpoint the concept of EAV’s is at a minimum a useful communication device, at best it allows us to reduce complexity when faced with multiple needs, focus our activities, and communicate our outputs in a way that supports coordination with other domains

4. Why Essential Agriculture Variables Now
It is clear GEOGLAM is already contributing information that is helping to achieve the SDG’s
We can do more but in order to do so we need to move towards more quantitative operational monitoring over multiple time scales.
The incremental effort to support the new policy drivers is manageable since we are already pursuing a set of EAV’s to meet the evolving needs of our original clients around market information and early warning for food security. Because these EAV’s are fundamental indicators of state and change in our domain they can be used for monitoring multiple policy dimensions
So why move on EAV’s now…Integration and coordination is difficult, it will likely be some time before initiatives like SDG’s mature to the point where their coordination function is effectively realized. If we wait for this to happen we won't be ready when they are ready to engage.

5. Essential Agriculture Variables – A Proposal
Early on GEOGLAM has referenced the “Defourny Diagram”
This approach has held fast and continues to inform our activities by linking our policy drivers to sensor agnostic, spatial-temporal requirements
A proposal – The Defourny diagram represents Essential Agricultural Variables, and the area bounded in red line represent the GEOGLAM EAV’s.
We propose a tiered (hierarchical)approach

6. Essential Agriculture Variables – A First Cut
Tier 0. Core Agriculture Indicators for GEOGLAM
Crop type
Crop Condition
Yield Forecast
Tier 1. Supporting Essential Agricultural Variables (GEOGLAM)
Phenology (planting date, current state, harvest date)
Crop Growth Indicators (Biomass, LAI, FAPAR)
Crop Calendars
Etc…
Tier 2. Supporting Essential Variables (External to GEOGLAM)
Essential Climate variables
Essential Water Variables
Essential Biodiversity Variables
Note: EAV list are preliminary pending further development by GEOGLAM community working group

7. Mapping GEOGLAM EAV’s to the Paris Accord
GEOGLAM Essential Agriculture Variables In Action – Crop Type
Mapping GEOGLAM EAV’s to the Paris Accord
2009
GEOGLAM tracks what crops are grown where and their condition
In this example crop type mapping provides insight into how climate change is affecting the agricultural landscape
2015

8. Mapping GEOGLAM EAV’s to the Sendai Framework
GEOGLAM Essential Agriculture Variables In Action – Crop Condition
GEOGLAM Crop Monitor
August 2017 for Uganda
Mapping GEOGLAM EAV’s to the Sendai Framework
Tracking crop condition in near real time informs proactive response to loss and damage
In this example Uganda used the crop monitor to forecast the impact of an emerging drought
Proactive program response based to this disaster resulted in a saving millions of dollars while improving the outcome for thousands of Ugandans

9. Mapping GEOGLAM EAV’s to the SDG’s
GEOGLAM Essential Agriculture Variables In Action – Crop Condition
Mapping GEOGLAM EAV’s to the SDG’s
July 2018 AMIS Crop Monitor
GEOGLAM produces its Crop Monitor as input to the Agricultural Market Information System
Timely
Accurate
Synoptic
Repeatable
Easy to understand
Actionable information
Since 2013 this has been facilitating timely access to market information, helping to limit extreme food price volatility, directly contributing to target 2.c

10. GEOGLAM/CEOS Expanding the Relationship
GEOGLAM Essential Agriculture Variables – Next Steps
GEOGLAM/CEOS
Expanding the Relationship
A letter was sent from GEOGLAM to CEOS in Advance of a joint meeting at JRC next week
GEOGLAM has identified our desire to expand our relationship with CEOS to leverage efforts to support analysis ready data and application ready data
This effort will focus on Essential Agricultural Variables, initially addressing crop area and crop type
We also discussed the need for a coordinated approach for leveraging the proliferation of ICT platforms and data services to support the agricultural monitoring system of systems
Over the next year we will work with CEOS to expand our relationship and secure the space agency support we need to move forward

11. GEOGLAM Essential Agriculture Variables – Translated to EO Requirements for CEOS

12. GEOGLAM Essential Agriculture Variables – Translated to EO Requirements for CEOS

13. GEOGLAM Best Practice Documentation, A Proposal
Enhancing GEOGLAM Information
GEOGLAM Best Practice Documentation, A Proposal
Higher level documents that provide a gateway to research and operational tools for those wanting to do operational agricultural monitoring
- Tool agnostic documentation
Focussed on addressing the Essential Agricultural Variables
- Rice Monitoring Best Practices (area, condition, change, etc…)
- Crop Monitoring Best Practices
- Yield Forecasting
Will point to “handbooks” that will provide practical hands on direction on using existing tools and available computing infrastructures and data dissemination capacity
Best Practices, Proposed Structure
Scoping ( what to measure, and defining site conditions )
- Field Size, orientation
- Terrain
- Cloud coverage
In-situ data collection standards
Data pre-processing chain (Analysis Ready data)
Analytical Methods
QA/QC and documentation (metadata) standards 13