The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an international framework signed by all United Nations (UN) member states in 2015, outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with associated targets and indicators. The vision of the SDG framework encourages every country to assume responsibility for planning and providing better outcomes for future generations, leaving no one behind.
Earth observations are an essential source of information in the implementation of solutions and in monitoring progress on meeting the SDGs. Earth observations (from satellite, airborne, and in-situ sensors) provide accurate and reliable information on the state of the atmosphere, ocean, ecosystems, natural resources, and built infrastructure along with their change over time. All remote sensing data provided by NASA, and most data from other agencies' Earth-observing satellites, are freely and openly available to all data users, which can reduce the cost of monitoring the SDGs and provides developing countries a means to acquire and utilize these data for other policy-making purposes.
Many NASA missions collect data that provide spatial, spectral, and temporal information that can be processed and transformed into variables or high-level products that are useful to produce SDG indicators, support SDG monitoring and implementation, and evaluate progress toward achieving sustainable development.
Each Goal below highlights NASA Earth observation data that can aid in calculating indicators and monitoring progress towards achieving SDG Goals and Targets.
