Uptake of the Global Surface Water Explorer by UN Environment for SDG 6.6.1
Description
UN Environment as the custodian for SDG Indicator 6.6.1 has selected the JRC- Global Surface Water Explorer as a suitable indicator and developed -based on it- a monitoring methodology for reporting. This was approved by the Inter-Agency Expert Group (IAEG) on SDGs during 2018 as an internationally recognized Tier II indicator monitoring methodology.<br />
JRC is committed to provide yearly update of the maps.<br />
To help ensure this global dataset can be understood, validated and owned by countries, UN is preparing –in collaboration with JRC - a web interface allowing to produce the needed statistics for the countries reporting.
The JRC- Global Surface Water Explorer is the –de facto- the official indicator for the SDG 6.6.1 and will directly benefit all 193 UN Member States with monitoring and attainment of progress towards SDG target 6.6 on protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems.<br />
Different elements enabled the GSWE as indicator for SDG:<br />
- The GSWE explorer is published in a top-level peer-reviewed journal (Nature). This facilitated the uptake by the country.<br />
- The GSWE is validated and the validation demonstrated a very high accuracy (>95 %).<br />
- The produced information is available at the global scale and at high resolution (30 m). <br />
- The product is -currently covering a 35-year period. This allows going ' back in time' to make accurate measurement. In addition, this allows a large flexibility to define an agreed baseline.<br />
- The product is distributed with a free and open access.<br />
- The GSWE will be updated on the long therm. This will be supported by the Copernicus Programme. This long-term commitment is essential as the SDG's need to be monitored in the long term.
This project was initially a small exploratory activity that progressively evolved toward an operational service.
The initial objectives were continuously raised all along the process based on the achieved result. This was enabled by the scientific and technical skills of the team and its strong commitment.
- UN Environment as the custodian for SDG Indicator 6.6.1 has selected the JRC- Global Surface Water Explorer (https://global-surface-water.appspot.com/) as a suitable indicator and developed -based on it- a monitoring methodology for reporting. This was approved by the Inter-Agency Expert Group (IAEG) on SDGs during 2018 as an internationally recognized Tier II indicator monitoring methodology. JRC is partner to UNEP and committed as owner of the Global Surface Water explorer to provide yearly update of the indicator for SDG 6.6.1 as the Commission’s contribution to the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. To help ensure the global dataset and “specific country needs” (for tools and platforms, for capacity building, for EO data access, for integration with national data) on freshwater can be understood, validated and owned by countries, UN Environment is preparing –in close collaboration with JRC and Google- an user friendly web interface build on the top of the Global Surface Water Explorer allowing to extract needed statistics for the countries reporting.
For that reason, the GSWE will be transferred to the Copernicus Global Land service in order to secure its operational production for the long term.
From an exploratory research project, we produced a scientific breakthrough published in the most prestigious scientific journal. <br />
In addition, UNEP recognised that the work of the JRC, in particular the value of services attributable to the Global Surface Water Explorer, as well as several additional current and potential services under the Copernicus programme represents an enormous volume of science and data able to directly benefit all 193 UN Member States with monitoring and attainment of progress towards SDG target 6.6 on protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems, as well as other (environmental) SDG indicators that UN Environment is the custodian agency for.<br />
The JRC-UNEP collaboration is not only a demonstration of excellence developed at JRC and of the impact that we can have on decision making at the global scale (193 UN Member States) but is also of prime importance for the Copernicus programme. This is demonstrated by the efforts deployed by DG GROW as illustrated in the “COPERNICUS IN SUPPORT OF THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS” factsheet (https://www.copernicus.eu/sites/default/files/documents/Brochure/Copern…)
- The prototype of the SDG6.6.1 webpage developed by UN in collaboration with JRC: https://sites.google.com/view/sdg661/home
- A summary of the online attention: https://www.altmetric.com/details/14541778#score
- A dedicated web page developed by the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/09/science/mapping-three-de…
- A summary of the scientific impact of the Nature publication: https://badge.dimensions.ai/details/id/pub.1030879957
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- Europe
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Contact Information
Lucian Parvulescu, Policy Officer