The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) engages with more than 100 governments and over 100 organizations to build a powerful understanding of how our planet works. For sustainable development to happen, Earth observations from land-based, ocean, atmospheric and satellite measurements are not only needed to build this understanding, but can also help monitor and thereby achieve the SDGs.

Every month our Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative, supported by national and regional organizations publishes the Crop Monitor to provide a global picture of crop conditions. This GEO tool was named in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda as a good example of how to meet the Global Goals, and it links directly to SDG Target 2.c to ensure the proper functioning of food markets for timely access to information on food reserves.

GEO supports governments and organizations to help citizens access clean water by integrating data from Earth observations and geospatial information with national surveys to monitor the impact of untreated wastewater on the population helping identify leakage in densely populated areas. GEO links national governments in countries without satellites with relevant data to support SDG Target 6.3 on improving water quality by reducing pollution and halving the proportion of untreated wastewater.

Earth observations provide information on air quality in communities and regions. Information on particulate matter can be used by statistical agencies, public health organizations and environmental protection officials to keep citizens safe. By linking Earth science to health professionals, GEO supports Target 11.6 to reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of pollution in cities, including by paying special attention to air quality.

In support of SDG Goal 14, life below water, the GEO’s Biodiversity Observation Network has supported the development of the Ecological Marine Unit tool to monitor the ocean environment in real time. This tool, developed by a regional group of scientists from a range of countries in the Americas and supported by the private sector, through Esri, was launched in September 2016 at the IUCN Congress.

Vegetation is clearly shown in this image of the Nile Delta in Egypt. Technology allows for day-by-day tracking of extreme weather, alerting authorities to crop failures, monitoring inland water resources and tracing the steady spread of deserts and deforestation. Copyright: ESA/VITO

SDG Target 15.2 to promote the implementation of sustainable management of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and increase afforestation and reforestation can be measured from space and verified on the ground. Forests are home for many populations and also provide their livelihood; and they capture carbon dioxide, the main gas linked to climate change. GEO’s Global Forest Observation Initiative, hosted by FAO, supports the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

The effects of climate change need to be better understood and GEO, in partnership with the United States and the World Resources Institute (WRI), joins the public-private Partnership for Resilience and Environmental Preparedness (PREP). In addition, at the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD)  Side Event at the UN General Assembly in September 2016, we announced we are joining a partnership for the Open Climate Data Repository.

GEO convenes Ministers, policy experts, managers and scientists to work on sharing data more broadly, integrating Earth observations and ensuring these observations inform decisions, through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). More than 200 million data resources are available globally.

The free and open data in GEOSS makes governments’ investments in observation systems go further. Measurements that governments (and their citizens) have already paid for can be applied to benefit all of humankind. In particular, as more developing countries create a seamless mosaic of their forest, agricultural resources and urban environments, they need to access this information; and appropriate training and resources can put that information to good use, to benefit their citizens and economies.

As an anchor partner in GPSDD, GEO is helping to mobilize the global community to unleash the power of Earth observations. We are supporting the Global Partnership’s financing initiative to help frame and develop country-owned strategies to support the development of national capacity to progressively allow all countries to properly master and manage the use of Earth observations in support of the SDGs.

The data revolution can help us more effectively face environmental and economic challenges, but there is still much more that can be done to make data more broadly and openly available. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) supports the Global Partnership in achieving Goal 17 to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnerships for sustainable development.

Image: Morocco’s Anti-Atlas Mountains, colors signify different rock types, from ASTER, a Japanese remote sensing instrument on a NASA satellite, monitoring climate change in support of SDG Goal 13. All imagery is free to use through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.