Monitoring Sustainable Development Goal Indicator 15.3.1 on Land Degradation Using SEPAL: Examples, Challenges and Prospects

Amit Ghosh (), Pierrick Rambaud, Yelena Finegold, Inge Jonckheere, Pablo Martin-Ortega, Rashed Jalal, Adebowale Daniel Adebayo, Ana Alvarez, Martin Borretti, Jose Caela, Tuhin Ghosh, Erik Lindquist and Matieu Henry
Additional contact information
Amit Ghosh: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Pierrick Rambaud: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Yelena Finegold: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Inge Jonckheere: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Pablo Martin-Ortega: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Rashed Jalal: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Adebowale Daniel Adebayo: Department of Geographical Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Ana Alvarez: Ministerio de Vivienda y Ordenamiento Territorial, Montevideo 11000, Uruguay
Martin Borretti: Ministerio de Vivienda y Ordenamiento Territorial, Montevideo 11000, Uruguay
Jose Caela: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Huambo 298, Angola
Tuhin Ghosh: School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
Erik Lindquist: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Matieu Henry: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: A third of the world’s ecosystems are considered degraded, and there is an urgent need for protection and restoration to make the planet healthier. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 15.3 aims at protecting and restoring the terrestrial ecosystem to achieve a land degradation-neutral world by 2030. Land restoration through inclusive and productive growth is indispensable to promote sustainable development by fostering climate change-resistant, poverty-alleviating, and environmentally protective economic growth. The SDG Indicator 15.3.1 is used to measure progress towards a land degradation-neutral world. Earth observation datasets are the primary data sources for deriving the three sub-indicators of indicator 15.3.1. It requires selecting, querying, and processing a substantial historical archive of data. To reduce the complexities, make the calculation user-friendly, and adapt it to in-country applications, a module on the FAO’s SEPAL platform has been developed in compliance with the UNCCD Good Practice Guidance (GPG v2) to derive the necessary statistics and maps for monitoring and reporting land degradation. The module uses satellite data from Landsat, Sentinel 2, and MODIS sensors for primary productivity assessment, along with other datasets enabling high-resolution to large-scale assessment of land degradation. The use of an in-country land cover transition matrix along with in-country land cover data enables a more accurate assessment of land cover changes over time. Four different case studies from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Uruguay, and Angola are presented to highlight the prospect and challenges of monitoring land degradation using various datasets, including LCML-based national land cover legend and land cover data.

Keywords: remote sensing; land cover; land cover meta language; cloud computing; sustainable land management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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