Abstract
In recent years, with more open data platforms and tools available to store and process satellite imagery, Earth Observation data have become widely accessible and usable especially for countries previously not in the possession of tasking rights to satellites and the needed processing capacity. Due to its ideal scanning and acquisition conditions for low cloud coverage imagery, Namibia aims to make use of this new development and integrate Earth Observation data into its national monitoring system of sustainable development goals (SDG). The purpose of this study is to assess the potential of open source tools and global datasets to estimate the national SDG indicators on Change of water-related ecosystems (6.6.1), Rural population with access to roads (9.1.1), Forest coverage (15.1.1) and Land degradation (15.3.1). The results are set into perspective of existing information in each particular sector. The study shows that, in the absence of in-situ measurements or data collected through surveys, the Earth Observation-based results represent a high potential to supplement the national statistics for Namibia or to serve as primary data sources once validated through ground-truthing. Furthermore, examples are given for the limitations of the assessed Earth Observation solutions in the context of Namibia. Hence, the study also serves as valuable input for discussions on a consensus on national definitions and standards by all stakeholders responsible for releasing official statistics.
Highlights
In a historic United Nations (UN) summit in September 2015, world leaders adopted Resolution 70/1 “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” through the General Assembly [1]
The comparison shows that the data extracted through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) App matches the data accessible on the sdg666.app if the Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL) produced by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) [30] or the Large Scale International Boundary (LSIB) Polygons of the United States Department of State (USDOS) [31] for the outline of Namibian administrative boundaries are used
The following sections provide the recommendations regarding the suitability of the corresponding Earth Observation (EO) solution for each indicator studied in this article
Summary
In a historic United Nations (UN) summit in September 2015, world leaders adopted Resolution 70/1 “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” through the General Assembly [1]. In July 2017, a common Indicator Framework was adopted through Resolution 71/313 to monitor the progress of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that represented this transformation [2]. For a variety of indicators, Earth Observation (EO) solutions play a significant role in providing cost effective, standardized, reliable, historic, and frequently updated information to assess the change in a country [3]. As a sparsely populated large country with low cloud coverage [4] for most of the year, Namibia appears to provide promising conditions where, in the absence of comprehensive monitoring capacity through ground data, EO solutions can serve to provide consistent information on a national scale with frequent updates. Conditions with respect to the cloud free requirement
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