GEO-XIV Side Event

On October 24, 2017, EO4SDG held its annual side meeting as part of the GEO-XIV Plenary, which took place at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

This year’s side event focused strongly on identifying concrete lessons – both technical and programmatic – from efforts to use Earth observations to support the SDG indicators and targets. We sought to help the audience learn about ways to integrate Earth observations with national statistics and other data sources to support SDG tracking, planning, and reporting. Panelists presented real-world, evidence-based examples to help reveal smart practices that others can emulate or reveal problems that others can avoid.

In addition to an introductory session, there were thematic sessions on four SDGs: Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation; Goal 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities; Goal 14 – Life Below Water; and Goal 15 – Life On Land. Each session featured a panel of speakers, including representatives from countries, custodian agencies, development banks, GEO activities, pilot projects, or other SDG stakeholders.

The side event kicked-off the development of EO4SDG white papers on uses of Earth observations for each of the four SDGs. Based on the information gathered in each panel, the respective moderators will develop a paper in the subsequent months. The papers will aim to provide illustrations of what has worked, address issues of data access, and cover lessons about data disaggregation, among other topics. The EO4SDG Initiative will use information from the papers in other venues, such as a GEO SDG Handbook and the EO4SDG website. Download the meeting agenda here. For additional information you may visit the side event’s web page.

 

Find presentations from the Side Meeting here:

 

Session 1. Introduction

Session 2. Panel on SDG 11, Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Moderator: Tim Trainor, USA/Census Bureau

Tim Trainor, USA/Census Bureau

Sandra Moreno, Colombia/DANE

Bob Chen, CIESIN 

Aditya Agrawal, GPSDD

Andrew Simmons, resilience.io

Session 3. Panel on SDG 6, Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Moderator: Argyro Kavvada, USA/NASA-BAH

Jason Jabbour, U.N. Environment Programme

Adrian Strauch, GEO Wetlands

George Zalidis, inter-Balkan Environment Center

William Young and Luis Alberto Andres, World Bank

Temilola Fatoyinbo, NASA

Session 4. Panel on SDG 15, Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Moderator: Marc Paganini, ESA & CEOS

Sasha Alexander, UNCCD

Douglas Muchoney, FAO

Neil Sims, CSIRO

Mariano Gonzalez-Roglich, Conservation International

Pilar Lozano, Colombia / IDEAM

Omar Seidu, National Statistics Office, Ghana

Session 5.  Panel on SDG 14, Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Moderator: William Sonntag, GEO

Jai Rampersad, St. Vincent & the Grenadines

Christoph Aubrecht, ESA & World Bank

Michael Ott, IOC

Frank Muller-Karger, USF & MBON

Max Kaplan, NOAA

Paul DiGiacomo, Blue Planet

 

Useful Links:

Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) 
MBON for SDG 14 data exploration tool
MBON for SDG 14 data exploration tool 
GEO Plenary 2017 / MBON SDG 14 presentation 14:30-16:30 (US eastern) /  live streamed 
Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)

GEO-XIV Side Event

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