Earth Observation for Sustainable Agriculture: How Earth Observation Products can Support the Monitoring of Sustainable Development Goal Indicator 2.4.1 in Portugal

By Isa Molewijk

Abstract
Since the launch of the first earth monitoring satellites, remote sensing has become an essential part of agricultural monitoring. With an increasing population and food scarcity, there is a need for sustainable and productive agriculture. The Sustainable Development Goals are a world-wide initiative by the United Nations, to combat climate change, poverty, and food scarcity. The U.N. provides an extensive methodology for country reporting, and reviews the methodology with new technologies. While satellite earth observation products are part of the monitoring of some indicators, there are still indicators which could benefit from earth observation products which has not yet been explored. In this report, earth observation products were researched to assess their value for the monitoring of Sustainable Development Goal Indicator 2.4.1. As the SDG methodology currently uses farm surveys for country reporting, it was analysed whether 11 sub-indicators related to this goal could be directly or indirectly monitored by earth observation methods as well. The study found that 4 of the 11 indicators could be directly monitored by earth observation products, and 3 others could benefit indirectly from earth observation products. The objective of this research was to identify and demonstrate how space-based earth observation products can contribute to monitoring sustainable agriculture. MODIS data was utilised to establish whether a study area in Alentejo, Portugal was decreasing, increasing or stable in sustainability. The study found that while earth observation products can be linked to the sub-indicators, the earth observation products alone could not directly indicate sustainability in agriculture. The study also questioned the link of the SDG 2.4.1 indicator and sub-indicators, and found that some indicators contradicted each other. In conclusion, space-based earth observation products have a good potential for monitoring SDG 2.4.1 and its related sub-indicators.

Keywords: Remote sensing; SDGs; MODIS; sustainability monitoring; agriculture