Toward a roadmap for space-based observations of the land sector for the UNFCCC global stocktake

Osamu Ochiai; Benjamin Poulter; Frank Martin Seifert; Stephen Ward; Ian Jarvis; Alyssa Whitcraft; Ritvik Sahajpal; Sven Gilliams; Martin Herold; Sarah Carter; Laura Innice Duncanson; Heather Kay; Richard Lucas; Sylvia N Wilson; Joana Melo; Joanna Post; Stephen Briggs; Shaun Quegan; Mark Dowell; Alessandro Cescatti; David Crisp; Sassan Saatchi; Takeo Tadono; Matt Steventon; Ake Rosenqvist

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106489

Toward a roadmap for space-based observations of the land sector for the UNFCCC global stocktake

iScience. 2023 Mar 23;26(4):106489. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106489. eCollection 2023 Apr 21.

Authors

Osamu Ochiai¹, Benjamin Poulter², Frank Martin Seifert³, Stephen Ward⁴, Ian Jarvis⁵, Alyssa Whitcraft⁶, Ritvik Sahajpal⁶, Sven Gilliams⁷, Martin Herold⁸, Sarah Carter⁹, Laura Innice Duncanson⁶, Heather Kay¹⁰, Richard Lucas¹⁰, Sylvia N Wilson¹¹, Joana Melo¹², Joanna Post¹³, Stephen Briggs^{14

15}, Shaun Quegan¹⁶, Mark Dowell¹⁷, Alessandro Cescatti¹⁷, David Crisp¹⁸, Sassan Saatchi¹⁹, Takeo Tadono¹, Matt Steventon⁴, Ake Rosenqvist²⁰

Affiliations

¹ Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Satellite Applications and Operation Center, 2-1-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8505, Japan.
² NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Biospheric Sciences Lab., Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
³ European Space Agency (ESA), ESRIN, 00044 Frascati, Italy.
⁴ Symbios, Vaucluse, Sydney, NSW 2030, Australia.
⁵ Group on Earth Observations (GEO), GEOGLAM Secretariat, 7bis Avenue de la Paix, Case postale 2300, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
⁶ Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
⁷ Vlaamse Instelling Technologish Onderzoek (VITO), Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium.
⁸ Helmholtz GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 1.4 Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
⁹ World Resources Institute, Bezuidenhoutseweg 105, 2594 AC The Hague, the Netherlands.
¹⁰ Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, SY23 3DB Aberystwyth, UK.
¹¹ United States Geological Survey (USGS), National Land Imaging Program, Reston, VA 20192, USA.
¹² School of Geography, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, LS2 9JT Leeds, UK.
¹³ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, UN Campus Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1 53113 Bonn, Germany.
¹⁴ Department of Meteorology, Reading University Whiteknights, RG6 6AH Reading, UK.
¹⁵ Department of Chemistry, Cambridge University, Lensfield Road, CB1 2EW Cambridge, UK.
¹⁶ School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield, S3 7RH Sheffield, UK.
¹⁷ European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate Sustainable Resources, Ispra, Italy.
¹⁸ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (Retired), 616 Antrim Place, La Canada, CA 91011, USA.
¹⁹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
²⁰ solo Earth Observation (soloEO), Kachidoki, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0054, Japan.

Abstract

Space-based remote sensing can make an important contribution toward monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and removals from the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sector, and to understanding and addressing human-caused climate change through the UNFCCC Paris Agreement. Space agencies have begun to coordinate their efforts to identify needs, collect and harmonize available data and efforts, and plan and maintain a long-term roadmap for observations. International cooperation is crucial in developing and realizing the roadmap, and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) is a key coordinating driver of this effort. Here, we first identify the data and information that will be useful to support the global stocktake (GST) of the Paris Agreement. Then, the paper explains how existing and planned space-based capabilities and products can be used and combined, particularly in the land use sector, and provides a workflow for their harmonization and contribution to greenhouse gas inventories and assessments at the national and global level.

Keywords: Earth sciences; Land use; Remote sensing.

Publication types

Review