EO For Good
“It seemed to me, as I struggled afterward to recall the experience, that self was utterly absent: I and the chimpanzees, the earth and trees and air, seemed to merge, to become one with the spirit power of life itself.” – Goodall
EO For Good envisions a global interconnected geospatial information ecosystem, in which everyone can interact to gain and co-produce knowledge. EO is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural activity—requiring skills from those in geography and remote sensing science as well as statistics, economics, and geopolitics, social sciences, Indigenous communities and studies, environmental sciences, international studies, and beyond. EO tools and technologies hold immense power for immediate, actionable change to face the challenges of climate change, humanitarian need, and for ecological and environmental and cognitive justice.
As Earth Scientists, there is nothing more important than developing a deep
(and accurate) sense of ourselves as citizens of the Earth.
Digital mapping and geospatial technologies—referred to as Earth Observation technologies, or "EO"—are part of how we develop context on Earth, as well as in the emerging and broadening digital ecosystem.
UN-GGIM
Group on Eath Observations (GEO)
Visit Group on Earth Observations
Mapping Non-Profits, Standards Organizations, and UN and other global, actionable EO mechanisms for communities, land, and environment
co-design principles
from data-centric, to human-centric
Balance the data-driven approach, and now to a human-driven, wisdom approach – need to support this, where we are and headed, and develop tools from here
ask what support to offer, instead of naming problems from the outside
Engaging communities to build tools of support, in a way that brings equity, the importance of individual people and communities, and builds trust
giving precedent to indigenous worldviews
Balance the data-driven approach, and now to a human-driven, wisdom approach – need to support this, where we are and headed, and develop tools from here
Practical Reasons for Building Systems Based on Cross-cultural Intellectual and Epistemological Equality
The IPBES framework houses highly participatory aspects and inclusive social-ecological frameworks (local, traditional, and Indigenous knowledge systems) as complementary to academic western scientific disciplines. Described in this guiding framework are indirect provisions—what are referred to as relational, existential, or spiritual value—that are closely-related to the cultural value, and thus suggests that cultural preservation may also play an important role in understanding ES and their scalability.
aside from the importance of its ethics and justice
Humans existing in-place for thousands of years developed symbiotic relationship with local environments, crucial not only for human survival but for co-beneficial ecological balance and sustainability. The indirect ecosystem provisions—including the existential value and perceived sanctity of land, plants, or animals—may therefore prove to provide a wealth of key information regarding appropriate ES indicators.
