Awareness raising on EO/GI/SDI for SDGS – the case of Hungary

• Main Authors: Szabolcs MIHÁLY, Tamás PALYA, Gábor REMETEY-FÜLÖPP
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Geo-SEE Institute 2017-12-01
• Series: Micro, Macro & Mezzo Geoinformation
• Subjects: un 2030 agenda; sustainable development goals; earth observation; geographic information; spatial data infrastructure; statistics; sdg awareness raising in hungary; sdg engagement of stakeholders in hungary
• Online Access: http://mmm-gi.geo-see.org/wp-content/uploads/MMM-GI_9/Mihaly_S-Palya_T-RemeteyFulopp_G.PDF

Approved by the UN General Assembly, the UN 2030 Agenda is a global program for the years 2016-2030 to achieve the selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Associated targets and indicators have been set up to be monitored and reported yearly in multi-sector collaboration of national level stakeholders together with the national statistical offices. Majority of the targets and indicators have spatial nature and Earth observation is inevitable to ensure their cost-effective measurement in order to tracking the progress of implementation of the SDGs. It was explicitly stated in the Resolution of the UN General Assembly, that the indicators have to be disaggregated by geographical location where appropriate. It became obvious, the following aspects will play vital role in the success of the program: - Geospatial information, Earth Observation data and data sharing - spatial data infrastructures, Earth observation information infrastructure - related capacity building - open data, open source tools and advanced data access architecture - partnership between data custodians and other stakeholders. The early engagement of the stakeholders is critical. Awareness raising campaigns are needed form local to global, where the EO4SDGs Strategic Implementation Plan could serve as a guideline (GEO, 2017). The Hungarian approach in the awareness raising calls the attention of the geospatial community and stakeholders, how their technologies and services can contribute to the support of the achievement of SGDs. Started in February 2017, the awareness raising campaign was executed by volunteer members of the Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (MFTTT).