Description

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a series of 17 goals set to end global poverty and protect the planet, with the aim of achieving successes by 2030. The SDGs topics include global health, climate change, economic inequality, sustainability, poverty, and more. This training focuses on addressing SDG goal 15 and its focus to “protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems; sustainably manage forests; combat desertification; halt and reverse land degradation; and halt biodiversity loss.”

In this training hosted by NASA's Applied Remote Sensing Training program (ARSET), participants learn how to access and apply satellite data relevant to land indicators, such as estimating total forest area and forest change. The webinar includes an overview of the SDGs, as well as an introduction to image classification and change detection.

Prerequisites

• Fundamentals of Remote Sensing

Objectives

By the end of this training attendees will be able to:

• Describe the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 15
• Acquire satellite observations of land cover used to assess SDG indicators 15.1.1 and 15.3.1
• Develop a basic understanding of image classification and change detection

Target Audience

This training is for regional, state, federal, and international organizations interested in addressing monitoring requirements for the SDGs through the use of remote sensing. Professional organizations in the public and private sectors engaged in environmental management and monitoring will be given preference over organizations focused primarily on research.

Course Format

• Three 1-hour parts

Sessions

Part 1: Overview of SDG 15

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

• Introduction to the Sustainable Goals Framework:
  • Overview of SDG 15
  • International Institute for Sustainable Development’s (IISD’s) SDG Knowledge Hub
  • Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the SDGs
• State of the world’s forests
• Introduction to the role of land-based remote sensing for targets and indicators
• Remote sensing data sources for assessment of land cover
  • Landsat
  • Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
  • Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)
  • Sentinel

Materials

• Part 1 Presentation Slides (PDF, 6.4 MB)

Materiales en Español

• Diapositivas de la Presentación de Parte 1 (PDF, 6.2 MB)

Part 2: SDG Target 15.1

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

• Overview of Target 15.1 and Indicator 15.1.1
• Overview of data portals and web-based tools for visualizing and acquiring land data:
  • Global Forest Watch (GFW)
  • The Forest Land Use Data Explorer (FLUDE)
  • European Space Agency Global Land Cover Map
  • MODIS Landcover
• Overview of image classification
• Demo: Downloading MODIS data

Materials

• Part 2 Presentation Slides (PDF, 4.2 MB)

Materiales en Español

• Diapositivas de la Presentación de Parte 2 (PDF, 4.2 MB)

Part 3: SDG Target 15.3

Thursday, June 22, 2017

• Overview of Target 15.3 and Indicator 15.3.1
• Introduction to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
• Overview of change detection:
  • Supervised land cover classification
• Demo: Global Forest Watch (GFW)

Materials

• Part 3 Presentation Slides (PDF, 4.2 MB)

Homework

• Homework

Materiales en Español

• Diapositivas de la Presentación de Parte 3 (PDF, 4.1 MB)

Tarea

• Tarea