Earth Observations in Environmental Diplomacy
- Paper number
IAC-06-B1.1.02
- Author
Dr. Shaida Johnston, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Goddard space Flight Center, United States
- Year
2006
- Abstract
This research effort determines under what conditions, and for what types of environmental treaties, Earth observation (EO) data are useful for monitoring international environmental agreements. The research extracts specific monitoring requirements from nine multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and explores how satellite EO data can be used to support them. The technical characteristics of the sensor systems and science data products associated with current and planned EO satellites were analyzed and mapped to the MEA requirements, providing a significant step toward linking the EO community with the international treaty community implementing these environmental agreements. The research results also include a listing and analysis of the positive and negative factors that influence whether EO data are useful in monitoring and verifying MEAs, and a set of key findings describing the conditions under which EO data are most useful to the treaties. Within the environmental treaty regime, the concepts of compliance verification and enforcement are treated significantly differently than in other treaty regimes. MEAs manage compliance using governance structures that offer expertise and resources to assist states that are reported to be in non-compliance, rather than enforce compliance with sanctions or other punishments. In addition, EO data do not capture all the information necessary to verify compliance. Limited temporal resolution due to fixed orbits is not adequate to detect specific events and EO data provide only indirect measurements of physical phenomena. Additional information, whether in the form of ground observations and measurements or aerial data are required to fully understand the forcing functions and status of most natural resources. EO data are most useful for environmental assessments, providing essential information about the conditions of the natural resources of interest to an MEA, e.g. forests, wetlands or oceans, without focusing on individual states or actors, therefore avoiding the politically sensitive issues of sovereignty and non-compliance.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-B1.1.02.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.