The Delegation from the Secretariat of UNCCD Visited CASEarth for Cooperation and Exchanges







  On September 17, 2018, Dr. Pradeep Monga, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the United 


Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and his delegation visited the Institute of Remote 


Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences to discuss the contribution of Big Earth Data made 


for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing especially on 


land degradation assessment. A preliminary intention was reached in cooperation between a research team 


from the Digital Belt and Road project of CASEarth and the UNCCD.


  LI Xiaosong and SUN Zhongchang, researchers from the Digital Earth Key Laboratory introduced the 


framework of CASEarth, the objectives, plans and achievements of Big Earth Data supporting the implementation 


of SDGs. They also proposed cooperation prospects on how to efficiently coordinate and promote Big Earth Data 


in supporting the implementation of SDGs around the world through the UNCCD. Dr. Pradeep Monga and Dr. Jia 


Xiaoxia from the UNCCD Science and Technology Policy Committee introduced UNCCD's positioning, 


technological requirements and the latest action plan.



  The two parties also exchanged views on how to make full use of the advantages of Big Earth Data to support 


the monitoring of SDG 15.3 (By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land 


affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world). 


Dr. Pradeep Monga highly appraised the potential of Big Earth Data to serve the zero growth of land 


degradation around world and in key areas, and proposed the idea of using Big Earth Data to improve the land 


degradation technical system for overall dynamic assessment. He hopes to cooperate with CASEarth to carry out 


land degradation assessment in Northeast Asia, and provide technology support and application demonstration 

of Big Earth Data for developing countries in Northeast Asia.

Fig.1 Dr. Pradeep Monga introducing the positioning of UNCCD

Fig.2 Group photo of all participants


Fig.2 Group photo of all participants