GLP News

A workshop to share knowledge and methods and to promote collaboration on “Earth Observation for the Land Matrix Initiative” was held at the University of Bern, Switzerland October 8-10, 2019. Participants sought to identify key research questions and modes of support for the LMI for the application and use of remote sensing technologies to better map and understand past, present, and future dynamics of land cover and land use change associated with Large-Scale Land Acquisitions. The workshop aimed to: 1) provide a forum amongst LMI supporting collaborators from various projects to explore RS methods and approaches (e.g. new change detection algorithms using the power of time series data analysis, ‘big data’ approaches, and cloud computing), as well as to identify data needs, and corresponding uncertainties related to identification and characterization of land cover and land use changes associated with LSLAs; and 2) identify the LMI’s needs for remotely sensed information and to explore how various research collaborators/teams can support the LMI globally and in specific regions or countries, through the harmonization of approaches and definition of workflows, sharing of such knowledge and methodologies, data analysis and provision and application of geospatial analysis to meet the information needs and goals of the LMI. Notably, the workshop was a new collaboration between research teams from the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), NASA Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) program, CIRAD (TETIS), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), and the GIZ, together with representatives of National and Global Observatories of the Land Matrix Initiative and marks the beginning of an effort to co-design and produce land systems science research for use by societal actors in support of more just and sustainable governance of land resources.

The workshop was co-sponsored by all the attending research teams (NASA, CIRAD, JRC, GIZ), with additional support from the Land Matrix Initiative, the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern, and the Global Land Programme.