The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a data driven agenda, and the use of Earth Observation (EO) can make the SDG indicators’ monitoring and reporting technically and financially viable, and comparable across countries.
SDGs-EYES aims to boost the European capacity for monitoring the SDGs based on Copernicus, building a portfolio of decision-making tools to monitor those SDG indicators related to the environment from an inter-sectoral perspective, aligning with the EU Green Deal priorities and challenges.
SDGs-EYES will establish an integrated scientific, technological and user engagement framework overcoming the knowledge and technical barriers that prevent the exploitation, combination and cross-feeding of data and tools from the Copernicus’s six core Services, its space-based and in-situ components, and other platforms and portals.
SDGs-EYES considers three interconnected SDGs, on climate (SDG13), ocean (SDG14) and land (SDG15), to demonstrate through four Pilots the Copernicus potential for monitoring six indicators making part of the EU and national assessments: GHG emissions, temperature deviation, ocean acidification, marine eutrophication, forest cover change and soil erosion. Although focusing on the biosphere, these indicators are linked to other SDGs on socio-economic and (geo)political factors (e.g., human health, resources security, poverty, conflicts, displacements). Thus, an additional cross-goals indicator and Pilot will focus on vulnerable communities under cumulative climate extreme hazards.
SDGs-EYES seeks to combine the science-informed (top-down) approach with a stakeholder-driven (bottom-up) approach to transfer scientific outcomes into easy-to-understand and easy-to-use actionable information in the context of SDG indicators’ assessment. Decision-making tools delivered by Pilots will be co-designed with users, to offer opportunities to regularly assess and refresh methodologies they adopt for monitoring and reporting.
36 months from 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2025
General aims
The main objectives of SDGs-EYES are:
- Objective 1. Facilitating access and increasing usability of EO information.
To build an open access holistic Data Ecosystem that coordinates and integrates Copernicus Data Stores and Data and Information Access Services (DIAS), as well as other sources of earth observation from European and global catalogues.
The proposed Data Ecosystem solution will increase the usability and exploitability of EO information, providing an easy-to-use environment for data access and analytics focusing on facilitating the integration and consolidation of Copernicus data. It will be based on a Unified Data Model and API following FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles and being compliant with EU standards (regulations, metadata, annotations, e.g., ISO 19115, ISO19139, INSPIRE directive, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).
Main output: A holistic Data Ecosystem integrating Copernicus Data Stores and other EO data sources
- Objective 2. Improving reliability, robustness, and accuracy of SDG indicators.
To build Copernicus-driven indicators based on scientific algorithms and rigorous validation (reliability, consistency, skills – providing insights on the confidence and uncertainty) for the monitoring of climate, ocean, and land SDG indicators, overcoming actual observational and information gaps. The approach will encompass existing indicators’ datasets as well as both state-of-the-art and renewed/improved methods for comparison/evaluation purposes, to provide insights on the level of improvements, assessed via the tiering approach that the project brings to the usual procedures followed at stakeholders’ premises.
Main output: A proof-of-concept Copernicus-based Service to build and assess SDG indicators.
- Objective 3. Advancing stakeholder capacity to deliver economic, social and policy value to European society in the context of UN SDG indicators.
The final information on indicators will be provided in a form to facilitate both understanding and uptake by stakeholders (e.g., protection agencies, territorial planners, policy makers, investors) interested in SDG related aspects. Facilitating ubiquitous access to SDGs-EYES outputs, stakeholders can efficiently incorporate data and tools in their decision-making process, increasing their capability through a scientific and evidence-based rigorous approach, overcoming challenges in accessing and using EO for SGD indicators’ monitoring and reporting. This can enable timely action and preparedness, benefiting the society and translating the importance of project outcomes into socio-economic value. SDGs-EYES Pilots will demonstrate “in the field” the value of shifting from common practices or data sources to the uptake and adoptions of Copernicus-driven solutions supporting decision- makers in developing adequate policies to facilitate the monitoring of the SDGs and to reach the targets.
Main output: EO-based decision support tools for monitoring SDG targets
CMCC role
In SDGs-EYES, CMCC will lead:
- WP1 on Project Coordination and Management, which aims to ensure the timely and high-quality achievement of the project results through technical and administrative coordination, as well as providing efficient organizational and financial management.
Specifically, WP1 consists of the following tasks:
- Task 1.1 – Project Coordination and Management
- Task 1.2 – Ethical (gender, equality, data protection) issues
- Task 1.3 – Research data, knowledge portfolio and IPR management
- Task 1.4 – Risk management and contingency plan
- Task 1.5 – Quality control and assurance
- WP3 on SDG Indicators’ Development and Evaluation, which will review and set the scientific basis of the indicators to be delivered by the project by first investigating, also collaborating with users through WP2, the available datasets, methodologies and tools enabling indicators calculations, with an analysis of their limitations and strengths. Successively, the data, methods and tools best fitting the purpose will be selected, and the indicator calculation workflows will be designed and implemented through test cases representative of Pilots and verified against independent datasets and/or state-of-the-art approaches.
Specifically, CMCC will lead
- Task 3.2 – Indicators’ development
- Task 3.3 – Indicators’ evaluation
and it will participate in
- Task 3.1 – Scouting and selection of data and methods
CMCC will also be involved in the following work packages by leading or participating in specific tasks:
- WP2 – Institutional Liaison, Co-design, and Users’ Uptake
Specifically, CMCC will participate in
- Task 2.2 – Co-design of prototypes and user feedback
- WP4 – SDGs-EYES Copernicus-based Service:
Specifically, CMCC will lead
- Task 4.3 – Workflow processing
- Task 4.4 – Visual IDE
and it will participate in
- Task 4.1 – Service implementation management
- Task 4.2 – Data ecosystem
- WP5 – Cross-domain pilots
Specifically, CMCC will lead:
- Task 5.1 – Pilot design
and it will participate in
- Task 5.2 – Pilot implementation
- Task 5.3 – Pilot demonstration, validation, and assessment
- WP6 – Communication, dissemination, and exploitation
Specifically, CMCC will lead
- Task 6.2 – Scientific dissemination, networking, and collaboration
Activities
The work plan of the project is arranged in 6 work packages:
- Project Coordination and Management
- Institutional liaison, co-design, and users’ uptake
- SDG Indicators’ development and evaluation
- SDGs-EYES Copernicus-based service
- Cross-domain pilots
- Communication, dissemination & exploitation
Expected results
Users directly involved in the Pilot-driven SDG indicators’ monitoring and reporting will improve their awareness and skills for effective and systematic use of geospatial and EO information increasingly available from Copernicus components (core services, space, and in-situ) as input in the calculation of selected SDG indicators, relying on non- invasive tools enabling regular delivering of information and comparable across countries, regions, and cities.
Standardized methods and tools, based on scientific evidence and on users’ feedback to meet their requirements, will be produced and made available to users, provided with clear and transparent support documentation to guide them in advancing the indicators calculation approaches beyond the state-of-the-art, i.e., combining EO/geospatial data with cutting-edge information technologies.
A fully integrated scientific, technological and user engagement framework, built around Copernicus DIAS, will be established to enable users in finding and accessing EO data, feeding tailored tools for calculating 7 SDG indicators, and mainstreaming the provided information in planning investments, prevention measures and management options towards the SDG target.
Partners
- SISTEMA GMBH – Austria (SISTEMA)
- METEOROLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH OBSERVATION SRL (MEEO) – Italy
- STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCH (WR) – the Netherlands
- EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF REMOTE SENSING COMPANIES – Belgium
- EUROPEAN UNION SATELLITE CENTRE – Spain
- T6 ECOSYSTEMS SRL – Italy
- AZIENDA SANITARIA LOCALE TO3 – Italy
- PEFC Romania – Romania
- FOREST DESIGN SRL – Romania