FAO welcomes new European Knowledge Centre for Earth Observation

20 April 2021, Brussels/Rome - “New solutions and modern approaches” are needed to face global challenges such as hunger, poverty, climate change, environmental degradation and the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said today at the launch of the European Commission’s new Knowledge Centre for Earth Observation (KCEO).

“Actionable information gained from earth observation data is an important enabler” for the transformation envisioned by FAO’s new Strategic Framework, which focuses on fostering more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, he said.

The KCEO aims to provide an agile internal coordination mechanism inside the European Union’s executive branch to maximize the uptake of products and information from the Copernicus Programme, the EU’s network of satellites and sensors.

“High-quality, accessible and timely data is crucial for effective policy formulation and implementation” and enables governments, the private sector and donors to better target investments and services, the Director-General said.

Qu pointed to “excellent avenues for cooperation” between KCEO and FAO’s sizable and growing geospatial toolkit as well as the potential to bolster FAO’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme through joint work on providing real-time data, knowledge and technical expertise to direct investments where and when they are needed most.

“This is synergy for the greater good of people all around the world,” Qu said.

Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, and Manuel Heitor, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, also spoke at KCEO’s launch event in Brussels, along with the heads of several European Union Directorate Generals, including Josef Aschbacher from the European Space Agency. They expressed their optimism about the growing practical value of accessible satellite-based data applications.

A curator of satellite knowledge and data in support of EU policies

The EU’s Copernicus Programme collects terabytes of data every day for six broad service areas: atmosphere, marine, land, climate change, security and emergencies.

Five of those are directly linked to FAO’s mandate, the Director-General noted.

The KCEO is being set up to accelerate its use and awareness of its potential, not only to address sectoral policies but also in assessing overall policy coherence, especially as the EU pursues the European Green Deal. The Centre also aims to help users, often overwhelmed by vast amounts of data, to identify quickly the most relevant information for their needs, and to raise awareness on next-generation Earth Observation science and associated technologies, helping policy makers exploit knowledge to go beyond monitoring.

FAO’s geospatial toolkit

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has an established presence in global geospatial and remote-sensing monitoring, the Director-General said.

Examples include the WaPOR portal to monitor water productivity, Earth Map and the new Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform.

Many of these tools are empowered by Google Earth Engine and are enriched by inputs from satellite data sets provided by Members, including the Sentinel network run by the EU’s Copernicus Programme. Such technologies are also critical for FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS), which continuously monitors on food supply and demand across the world, and the Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS).

The Hand-in-Hand Initiative aims to identify the greatest opportunities to raise the incomes and reduce the inequities of rural populations, Qu noted. Its geospatial platform brings together data from across FAO on topics ranging from land, water and climate to fisheries, livestock, crops, forestry, trade and socio-economic realities. FAO will also host the new International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture to provide Members with structured and strategic policy recommendations on the digitalization of their agricultural and food sectors.

New agreement with the European Space Agency

Also today FAO signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Space Agency (ESA) to pave the way for exchanging relevant expertise and developing applications in which Earth observation images can be used to better monitor agri-food systems and support countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The MoU covers areas such as identifying and understanding the requirements and challenges for using satellite data in the field of food and agriculture, sharing datasets and surveys, supporting access to Earth observation datasets and developing innovative Earth Observation algorithms, products and applications making full use of the latest digital capabilities, such as cloud computing.

The new agreement was signed some days after ESA and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet was designated FAO Goodwill Ambassador by FAO’s Director-General.

In that role, Pesquet – who is scheduled to start a six-month stint in space on 22 April -will help FAO raise awareness of the importance of transforming the world's agri-food systems, making them more resilient, inclusive, efficient and sustainable to overcome the challenges of persisting and growing hunger, and preserving the planet's environment and biodiversity.