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SDG 11: SUSTAINABLE CITIES & COMMUNITIES
GEO and UN-Habitat joined forces and are working to build an “Earth Observation Toolkit for Sustainable Cities and Communities” to support UN Member States to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable,” and to implement the New Urban Agenda (NUA) using EO data.
In April 2020, GEO EO4SDG released a joint call with UN Habitat, in collaboration with the Human Planet and GUOI initiatives, for an Earth observations Toolkit for SDG 11 and the NUA. The aim is to develop methods to use EO data in urban monitoring and SDG reporting.
There were 60 responses to the call from global, national and city-level organizations. An evaluation panel, comprised of representatives from the UN-Habitat, GEO Work Programme, GEO Secretariat and GEO PB Urban Resilience Sub-group, selected 19 countries, cities and global initiatives to be part of the Toolkit Steering Committee to:
a) actively contribute to the toolkit development
b) participate in activities associated with the toolkit such as evaluation of usability of different Earth observation products for local monitoring activities
c) make their data and methods available via the Toolkit
d) share their use cases and innovative practices
e) where applicable, serve as advocates of Earth observations for SDG 11 and the NUA
The toolkit, developed through a consultative process with countries and cities, will complement guidance published by UN-Habitat, and will be produced in conjunction with UN-Habitat and a selected number of regionally representative countries and cities. It will provide practical guidance on the integration of remotely sensed and ground-based EO data with national statistics, socioeconomic data, and other, ancillary information to help countries monitor, report and drive progress on SDG 11 and the NUA.
“The Earth Observations Toolkit for Sustainable Cities and Communities provides an innovative form of knowledge and expertise exchange that can serve as a first step for countries and cities interested in applying Earth observations to support their SDG monitoring needs.”
Argyro Kavvada, Executive Secretary, EO4SDG, NASA, U.S.
