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28 November - 01 December 2022 VIRTUAL ONLINE EVENT

2022 WORKSHOP ON EARTH OBSERVATION FOR ECOSYSTEM ACCOUNTING
(EO4EA 2022)

The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to 25th October 2022!

 

Partners

EO4EA 2022

The 2022 Workshop on Earth Observation for Ecosystem Accounting (EO4EA 2022) is organized by the European Space Agency in collaboration with the Environmental-Economic Account section of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Earth Observations for Ecosystem Accounting initiative of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO EO4EA).

Background

The System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) provides an internationally agreed statistical framework to measure the environment and its relationship with the economy. The SEEA brings together economic and environmental information using agreed concepts, definitions, classifications, accounting rules to produce internationally comparable statistics that measure the contribution of the environment to the economy and the impact of the economy on the environment.

In March 2021, the United Nations Statistical Commission adopted the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) as a new international statistical standard to account for ecosystem assets, ecosystem services and their links to the economy. Further in March 2022, the UN Statistical Commission adopted the implementation strategy for the SEEA EA which stresses the importance of scaling up the implementation in countries using earth observation in combination with national data. This new statistical framework brings a paradigm shift in making explicit the contribution and value of ecosystems to our wellbeing and the appreciation and valuation of natural resources, allowing countries worldwide to use a common set of rules and methods to track changes in ecosystem stocks (e.g. ecosystem extent and condition) and flows of ecosystem services, and to link ecosystem information to economic and other human activities. The SEEA Ecosystem Accounting, which is applicable to all terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, provides a new measurement framework underpinning the development of monitoring frameworks of several ecosystem-related indicators from international agreements,including the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

In Europe, the European Green Deal and the newly adopted EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 recognise the value of ecosystem accounting in the development of a comprehensive Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) in the Europe Union. The European Commission, under the coordination of DG ESTAT, is currently working on a new regulation on ecosystem accounting, which will amend the EU Regulation No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.

Ecosystem Accounts are inherently spatial accounts, with the implication that they strongly depend on the availability of spatially explicit datasets, including Earth Observations. EO is widely recognized as a major source of information to monitor the extent and condition of ecosystems and services provided. The advent of dense EO data streams at appropriate scales combined with the emergence of digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for countries to monitor the extent and condition of their ecosystems, determine ecosystem services and to use this information in compiling ecosystem accounts. The EO community has joined effort under the GEO EO4EA initiative to leverage the power of Earth Observations in ecosystem accounting.

Objectives

The objective of the 2022 Workshop on Earth Observation for Ecosystem Accounting is to bring together experts in Earth Observation and experts in Ecosystem Accounting to jointly discuss the key challenges that need to be addressed in order to use Earth Observation in compiling national ecosystem accounts to support national policies. 

The Workshop will introduce the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting framework to the EO community, present on-going efforts to harness the potential of Earth Observations in ecosystem accounting, showcase, through open sessions, practical examples of EO applications for Ecosystem Accounting, and review the main challenges lying ahead for an effective use of Earth Observation in compiling national ecosystem accounts.

The workshop will address the use of Earth Observation for ecosystem accounts in all realms, from terrestrial, freshwater, coastal to marine ecosystems.

The objective of the workshop is to reinforce the importance to join efforts to provide robust and cost-effective EO solutions that help countries develop and compile their ecosystem accounts.

Connected Event

The Workshop on Earth Observation for Ecosystem Accounting is organized the week prior to the seventh Forum of Experts on SEEA Ecosystem Accounting 2022 held by UNSD, and which will take place on 6 and 7 December 2022 (7:00-10:00am NY time), also in a virtual format.
The outcome of the workshop will be presented during the Forum of Experts on SEEA Ecosystem Accounting

Sessions

The 2022 Workshop on Earth Observation for Ecosystem Accounting will be organized as a series of:

  • invited talks,
  • open sessions with oral presentations (selected through a call for abstracts),
  • group discussions.

All sessions will take place from 13:00 until 17:00 Rome Time – CET (07:00 – 11:00 NY time) and are public and open to all those who register for the Workshop.

No registration fee will be charged to participate to the workshop.

Programme

Monday 28th November

Invited Session with keynote talks to set the scene

(SEEA statistical framework, SEEA Ecosystem Accounting, European legislation on Ecosystem Accounting, European INCA project,
Presentations of the SEEA-EA components, GEO EO4EA initiative, ARIES platform for SEEA-EA, etc.)

Tuesday 29th November

Open Session on Ecosystem Extent

(Role of EO for compiling ecosystem extent accounts in combination with ancillary data, including challenges and opportunities)

Open Session on Ecosystem Condition

(Role of EO for compiling ecosystem condition accounts in combination with ancillary data, including challenges and opportunities)

Wednesday 30th November

Open Session on Ecosystem Services

(Role of EO for compiling ecosystem service accounts in combination with ancillary data, including challenges and opportunities)

Open Session on Thematic Accounts

(e.g. Forest accounts, Ocean accounts, Urban accounts, etc.)

Thursday 1st December

Open Session on Ecosystem Accounting Operationalisation

(key issues on EO use in ecosystem accounting, such as data and model Interoperability, data quality standards for statistical accounting,
ecosystem account uncertainties, data infrastructures, integration of EO with other data in compiling ecosystem accounts, etc.)

Session Summaries

(summaries of the 5 open sessions with recommendations)

Conclusive Remarks

Abstracts

The programme of the “Open Sessions” will consist of oral presentations selected through a call for abstracts on 5 themes:

  • Ecosystem Extent accounts
  • Ecosystem Condition accounts
  • Ecosystem Services accounts
  • Thematic accounts
  • Ecosystem Accounting operationalization

Abstract length should be at least 200 words and maximum 300 words with Information about the co-authors (name, lastname, affiliation, contact Email)

The Oral presentations will be selected by the Programme Scientific Committee.

Contact

For information regarding the submissions, author instructions, scientific committee related inquiries please contact
ENVMAIL@esa.int

Schedule and Deadlines

Abstract submission opening12th July 2022
Registration Opening12th July 2022
Abstract submission closure31st October 2022
Notification of acceptance10th November 2022
Issue of Preliminary Programme10th November 2022
Issue of Final Programme18th November 2022
Workshop28th November 2022 – 1st December 2022

Organising Committee

Alessandra Alfieri

UNSD Environmental Economic Accounts Section

Daniel Juhn

Conservation International, GEO EO4EA

Giuseppe Ottavianelli

ESA

Marc Paganini

ESA

Fabrizio Pera

Serco c/o ESA

Ulla Väyrynen

Serco c/o ESA

Max Wright

Conservation International, GEO EO4EA

Programme Committee

Alessandra Alfieri

UNSD Environmental Economic Accounts Section

Ken Bagstad

U.S. Geological Survey

Stefano Balbi

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), ARIES for SEEA project

David N. Barton

Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)

Benjamin Burkhard

Leibniz University Hannover

Mandy Driver

South Africa Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Chair of SEEA-EA Technical Committee

Laurent Durieux

GEO Secretrariat

Lars Hein

Wageningen University (WUR)

Eva Ivits

European Environment Agency (EEA)

Daniel Juhn

Conservation International, GEO EO4EA

Jonathon Khoo

Australian Bureau of Statistics

Joachim Maes

European Commission DG REGIO

Peter Meadows

Australian Bureau of Statistics

Giuseppe Ottavianelli

ESA

Marc Paganini

ESA

Jan-Erik Petersen

European Environment Agency (EEA)

Ekkehard Petri

European Commission DG ESTAT

Fernando Santos Martín

Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid

Bruno Smets

VITO, KIP-INCA project

François Soulard

Statistics Canada

Marialuisa Tamborra

European Commission DG JRC

Sara Vallecillo

European Commission DG JRC

Ferdinando Villa

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), ARIES for SEEA project

Veronika Vysna

European Commission DG ESTAT

Max Wright

Conservation International, GEO EO4EA

Mayra Zurbaran

SEIDOR’s external expert at JRC