On Tuesday, 28 May, EARSC hosted the fifth and final webinar of the user uptake series under theSDGs-EYES project, to engage stakeholders, foster collaboration, and promote Copernicus-based services across five pilot areas. This session focused on Forest Cover Change and Soil Erosion: Advancing SDGs Indicators Monitoring, Reporting, and Accounting. SDGs-EYES aims to enhance Europe’s capacity to monitor SDGs using Copernicus data, aligning with the EU Green Deal. By integrating data from six core services, the project develops accurate SDG indicators and decision-making tools. Continuous user engagement is key, ensuring co-design, adaptability, and successful service uptake adoption throughout the project’s duration.
The webinar was attended by 45 online participants from across Europe and beyond, representing a diverse community of users, including forest and soil erosion researchers, Earth Observation (EO) service providers, forest managers, certification bodies, and policymakers involved in environmental monitoring.
The session featured presentations of two complementary tools developed within the SDGs-EYES project, using Romania as a pilot case study:
- A forest monitoring tool presented by Mihai Daniel Nita from Forest Design, which uses high-resolution Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to quantify and track changes in forest cover. The tool supports both the EUROSTAT indicator “Share of forest area” and the UN SDG 15.1.1 “Forest area as a proportion of total land area”. Participants learned about its advanced change detection workflow, validation processes, and monitoring capabilities, as well as the integration of ancillary data to enhance accuracy and map interpretation.
- A soil erosion assessment tool, developed by Melissa Latella from CMCC Foundation, demonstrated across the Olt River Basin. This tool delivers insights into potential rainfall-induced soil erosion and its drivers, such as land use, land cover, and nearby infrastructure. Given soil erosion’s role in land degradation and its wider impacts on food security and human well-being, the tool aims to inform both local and EU-level policies and contribute to progress tracking for the UN SDG 15.3.1 “Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area”.
The session continued with two panel discussions and breakout rooms, each focused on one of the tools. These interactive segments provided a forum for expert dialogue, refining the tools, identifying synergies with ongoing initiatives, and exploring opportunities for broader application beyond the Romanian pilot area.
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
The webinar highlighted the value of Copernicus-based EO tools for monitoring SDG indicators on forest cover change (SDG 15.1.1) and soil erosion (SDG 15.3.1). Both tools demonstrated strong potential to support EU and international reporting requirements and inform evidence-based policy and land management.Long-term service uptake depends on tools being user-friendly, well-documented, and adaptable to varying user needs. Discussions emphasised the importance of transferring ownership to stakeholders, simplifying interfaces, and offering targeted training.
Several participants expressed interest in becoming validation or exploitation users to test the tools and support further development. They will support the project by testing functionalities, providing feedback on usability, and assessing the tools’ relevance for operational use in national forest management and soil degradation reporting. The project team will follow up with these users to co-develop improvements and explore integration into existing workflows.
If you missed the live session, you can review the webinar recording here!