This interactive workshop will discuss approaches for collaboration between the academic, public and private sectors to advance the application of earth observation in support of the SDGs. The workshop will have two parts. During the first half, speakers will present examples of collaborative projects in which an academic university team partners with a government or multilateral development organization to build new capacity for earth observation applications.

The second half of the workshop will be a facilitated dialog that gathers insights from participants about their experiences in academic/public/private sector partnerships. The objective of the workshop is to document practices that have been shown to help transfer academic research approaches into practice within national governments, with private sector, local governments and others. The presentations will include examples from projects pursued by the Space Enabled Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program and the government of Benin.

Speakers

William Sonntag, Research Affiliate, MIT Media Lab Space Enabled Research Group

• Overview of MIT Space Enabled Research Activities

Mónica Miguel-Lago Executive Secretary EARSC - European Association of Remote Sensing Companies

• Building partnership to develop the EO/GI sector skills strategy & Value Chain Based Examples

Chen Jun - National Geomatics Center of China

• Development Local SDG Indicators – University and Provincial Partners

Antje Hecheltjen, Special Advisor, GIZ - the German Development Agency

• Global Partnership Development – Land Degradation Neutrality Workshop

Graciela Metternicht, Professor, Environmental Management, Policy and Sustainability, Science International Coordinator School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences UNSW Australia

• Reporting & Collaboration Platform at a National Level for Public, Academia, Business Initiatives (remote presentation)

Interactive Workshop Session: Attendees will break into small groups for discussion of challenges and examples of activities leading to best possible outcomes.  Speakers above have agreed to facilitate the small groups leading with a series of questions about at least the following partnership modalities of research and relationships:

• Translation of Academic research to all sectors – lessons that folks have learned moving from theory to real practice – impact and practice – co-exploration;
• Government to Government – data reconciliation examples, in particular with statistical practice
• Government to Private Sector – government support private sector commercial success and infusion of Earth observation data into commercial practice
• Private Sector to Supporting Government - value added service companies provide services that support government decision making on infrastructure, disaster response
• Multi-lateral and Global Development Community - Earth observations and other space technology supporting development, humanitarian and social welfare.

Speakers bios

Mónica Miguel-Lago is the executive secretary and sector adviser for EARSC gained through 15 years of working experience in Earth Observation interacting with different stakeholders from most highly regarded technological related firms to organizations such as ESA, EU, GEO or UN Units. With a scientific background and proven ability and experience of conducting international programs, she is leading a methodology for assessing the maturity of (G) EO activities at national level under an H2020 project. Her experience in outreach projects, education and communication on the capabilities and limitations of Earth Observation makes a valuable asset for the project on sector skills strategy where she is leading and coordinating the preparatory work and road map. She is responsible for relations with EARSC members, understanding the services portfolio evolution and contributing with community relations, specially groups with focus on Sustainable Development Goals. Her engagement to consulting activities in the EO industry developed a strong belief that innovative EO can enable tremendous business growth and she is extremely pleased contributing on these exciting times for the sector.

Chen Jun is the leading scientist of China’s global land cover mapping programï¼ÂŒand developed the world’s first wall-to-wall 30-m global land cover data, GlobeLand30. He has published over 200 papers and supervised 50 Phd students. He served the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) for over twenty years, including Congress director, secretary general and president. In 2015, he received Geospatial World Innovation Award in 2015 and Asia Geospatial Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Chen Jun has just completed the first comprehensive assessment of progress towards SDGs in China at a county level. He is going to talk about the collaboration about this.

Antje Hecheltjen studied geography in Tuebingen and Bonn (both Germany) with a focus on development research as well as on remote sensing.

• Lived in Australia, the Philippines and Ecuador, and worked with several countries in Africa and Latin America.
• Did research on multi-sensor LULCC and automated change labelling at the Center for Remote Sensing of the Land Surfaces (ZFL, Bonn).
• Worked as a consultant for the UNCCD.
• Worked as associate expert at the United Nations Programme on Space-based Information for Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER), a programme of UNOOSA.
• Working as advisor for the German development agency (GIZ) with a focuss on UNCCD-related issues, especially Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
• One of three Interim Co-Chairs of the GEO-LDN Initiative.

Dr Graciela Metternicht Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies, Graciela Metternicht is the former Regional Coordinator of Early Warning and Assessment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the UNEP, Professor Metternicht was Head of Discipline and Professor of Geospatial Systems and Environmental Management at the School of Natural and Built Environments of the University of South Australia (UNISA). Prior to joining the UNISA, she was a Professor of Spatial Sciences at the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM), Curtin University of Technology. While at UNEP, Professor Metternicht was responsible for the planning and implementation of projects related to environmental assessment and early warning in Latin America and the Caribbean, including capacity building and the provision of technical assistance to governments of the region in policy uses of these outputs. She made significant contributions to global and regional environmental reports of the UNEP and the UN, such as the 5th Global Environment Outlook (GEO 5) - the most authoritative assessment of the state, trends and outlook of the global environment - and major reports focused on resource efficiency; sustainable, resource-efficient cities; and regional advances on environmental sustainability, indicators of sustainable development, and climate change.

In her previous academic positions she conducted teaching, research and consultancy in areas of remote sensing and GIS applications for natural resource assessment and management, including land use planning. She has published over 100 scientific papers in international journals and conference proceedings, and has attracted research funding through Australian competitive grants (ARC and others), international grants and research contracts.

Professor Metternicht obtained a PhD in Geography (summa cum laude) from the University of Ghent, Belgium in 1996, a Master of Science in Geo-information and a Postgraduate Diploma in Cartography from the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), in The Netherlands in 1991-92. She was a Visiting Professor at the Swiss Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH), the University of Alcalá (Spain), the Institute for Soil, Climate and Water of the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa, the Centre for Global Environmental Research of the National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan, and Institute for Remote Sensing Applications of the Chinese Academy of Science.

Informational Web-links Contributed by Graciela Metternicht

http://ap-unsdsn.org/about/

http://ap-unsdsn.org/regional-initiatives/universities-sdgs/university-sdg-guide/

https://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/development-issues/2030-agenda/Pages/sustainable-development-goals.aspx

 https://sdgs.org.au/ (to add case studies).  

Find here one of my PhD students ongoing work:

https://sdgs.org.au/project/exploring-national-pathways-to-achieve-the-sdgs-in-australia-and-the-pacific/

Work with colleagues from the network TERN (Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network)

https://sdgs.org.au/project/australias-mangrove-observing-system/

http://www.unglobalcompact.org.au/issues/sustainable-development/sustainable-development-goals-sdgs

Contact

Contact: William Sonntag wsonntag@media.mit.edu

Organizers

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Contact

William Sonntag (wsonntag@media.mit.edu)