Working Groups

Working Group 2: Data Quality Standards

Leadership

Key Tasks and Objectives
The main task of Working Group 2 (WG2) is to develop minimum data quality standards to facilitate interoperability between different tools and databases for LDN assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting. The objective is to ensure consistency, coherence and comparability of data sets supplied by various data providers in support of country efforts to monitor SDG 15.3.1 and its sub-indicators.

Achievements
In 2020, WG2 developed minimum data quality standards and decision trees for SDG indicators 15.3.1 through a consultation process which involved over 30 data providers/experts and 100 data users. This consultation resulted in a technical document titled: “Minimum data quality standards and decision trees for SDG Indicator 15.3.1: Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area.”

In 2021, these outputs were integrated in the Good Practice Guidance on SDG indicator 15.3.1 (Version 2), contributing to the enhancement of Trends.Earth by Conservation International.

This work was financed by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Next Steps

• Development of standards for interoperability of tools and application of data quality standards and decision trees to specific geographies
• Call for long time series high-resolution datasets

Working Group 3: Data Analytics

Leadership

Key Tasks and Objectives
Working Group 3 (WG3) is working towards establishing a federated collaborative data analytics platform to assist countries to calculate SDG Indicator 15.3.1 and assess their progress towards LDN. WG3 will support the development and implementation of big data analytics tools, consistent with the relevant standards identified by WG2, to enable countries to easily access, analyze and interpret large Earth Observation (EO) datasets in globally consistent ways, while also facilitating national data sovereignty.

Achievements
In 2020-21, the GEO-LDN competition produced the Land Use Planning for LDN (LUP4LDN) tool, developed by SCiO in consultation with land use planning experts.

Next Steps
• Development of a concept for the LDN Toolbox and associated workflow, hosted on GEO-LDN website
• Filling gaps concerning the issue of carbon stocks above and below ground measurement
• Provision of data analytics outputs of WG3 as knowledge packages, for instance to the GEO Knowledge Hub (GKH)

Working Group 4: Decision Support 

Leadership

Key Tasks and Objectives

1. Provide guidance for Policy and Evidence-Based Decision-Making for LDN: WG4 aims to facilitate the use of the latest tools and datasets by decision makers, ensuring fitness for purpose and relevance of the outcomes for policy development and evidence-based decision-making processes such as ILUP, LDN target setting and revision, prioritizing areas for investments, etc. Through tailored support and development of guidelines, workflows and knowledge products, WG4 will bring context and purpose to the GEO LDN community.
2. Co-design Innovative Methodological Workflows: By co-developing and refining methodologies with stakeholders, the working group will outline tested workflows that make use of the different tools and datasets of the GEO LDN toolbox for specific objectives, providing use cases and examples. These efforts will contribute to the enhance flow and interoperability of tools.
3. Identify challenges, successes, and recommendations from countries: WG 4 serves as a conduit for Parties to identify and communicate their challenges, successes, and recommendations regarding the use of geospatial datasets and tools for land degradation neutrality (LDN) implementation. Through collaborative engagements and participatory methodologies, WG 4 will gather comprehensive feedback from diverse stakeholders at global, national, and local levels, ensuring inclusivity and equity, enabling voices from all geographical regions and groups to be represented. By synthesizing and analysing this wealth of experiential knowledge, WG 4 will provide valuable inputs to the UNCCD, data providers and tool developers.
4. Promote South-South Knowledge exchange for LDN: by engaging stakeholders and identifying common needs and strengths, WG4 will support knowledge exchange among projects and countries on evidence based decision making for LDN.

Activities and Achievements

1. Tailored Support for Country Parties: WG 4 aims to deliver targeted support to countries engaged in GEO LDN activities, such as the Global Dialogue Forum, extending beyond the events themselves. Through the facilitation of workshops and technical assistance, the working group is empowering countries and teams achieve their objectives with measurable impacts.
2. Strategic Assistance for LDN Target Setting: WG 4 provides strategic guidance and technical support to countries revising or setting their national voluntary LDN targets.  
3. Co-Development of innovative LDN decision support systems: based on concrete use cases and country’s needs, WG4 will lead the co-development of cloud based LDN Decision Support systems that will allow users integrate national and local knowledge and data with global datasets to implement the principle of Convergence of Evidence to assess and monitor land degradation, as well as to enhance synergies among the UN Conventions.
4. Meta-Analysis and Synthesis of Global Datasets and Tools: Another activity of WG 4 is to take on the task of conducting meta-analyses and synthesis of datasets at the global scale. Through the analysis of alternative datasets, WG4 will identify patterns and trends, critical for understanding the drivers and dynamics of land degradation processes worldwide.

Next Steps

1. In alignment with the Online Support Sessions following the Global Dialogue Forum, WG4 will support and facilitate technical discussions with country teams in order to identify and use the most appropriate datasets and tools to fulfill their objectives.
2. WG4 will provide evidence and feedback to WG2 and WG3 on the specific needs and context relevant adaptations to ensure fitness of purpose of the tools and datasets.
3. Based on previous processes, such as PRAIS4 reporting, and use cases, WG4 will produce scientific papers and guidelines that provide relevant knowledge on the use of different datasets and tools for the implementation of the LDN framework.
4. In close cooperation with WG1, WG4 will co-design trainings and training of trainers for stakeholders, GEO LDN Helpdesks and the UENR postgraduate course on LDN.
5. WG4 will co-organize events and materials to be showcased by the countries and stakeholders during UNCCD COPs and other events