Contents Foreword i Preface v Executive Summary ix List of Cases on Big Earth Data for SDGs xv Chapter 1 Introduction Challenges to implementing the SDGs / 2 Big Earth Data / 3 Big Earth Data in Support of SDGs / 4 Chapter 2 SDG 2 Zero Hunger Background / 8 Main Contributions / 9 Case Study / 11 Spatial distribution of classes of farmland size and agricultural productivity in Zambia / 11 Monitoring desert locusts in Asia and Africa / 18 Spatiotemporal patterns of rice paddy dynamics on the Indochina Peninsula / 25 Cultivated land productivity dataset and its application in Northeast Eurasia / 32 Ethiopian wheat production potential / 40 Capacity building contributing to food security governance in Mozambique / 46 Summary / 55 Chapter 3 SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation Background / 58 Main Contributions / 59 Case Study / 60 Spatial and temporal patterns of surface water clarity in the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative / 60 Crop water productivity assessment of a representative irrigation district in Morocco / 67 Water-use eff iciency in Central Asia / 74 Water-use eff iciency in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin / 81 Changes in water bodies in Ramsar sites / 90 Summary / 97 Chapter 4 SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities Background / 100 Main Contributions / 101 Case Study / 103 Road network changes and road connectivity assessment in the 65 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa / 103 Analyzing rural accessibility along the China-Pakistan Railway / 113 High-resolution urban impervious surface mapping for global urbanization assessment / 119 Urban land use eff iciency and sustainability analysis for cities in Asia, Europe and Africa / 125 Assessment of land use changes in global large cities / 133 Study on spatial and temporal distribution and protection countermeasures of cultural heritage in Asia, Europe and Africa / 140 Human disturbance monitoring and integrated pressure analysis in World Natural Heritage sites in Asia, Europe and Africa / 151 Summary / 159 Chapter 5 SDG 13 Climate Action Background / 162 Main Contributions / 163 Case Study / 165 Natural disaster impact evaluation in Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania, 2015-2019 / 165 Global burned area distribution and changes / 174 Factors and temporal variation of emissions from dust sources in Central Asia over the past 40 years / 179 Global forest carbon budget and climate change / 185 Risk assessment of freeze-thaw disasters in High Mountain Asia / 191 Contributing factors and growth trend analysis for the desert locust upsurge in early 2020 / 197 Evaluation of navigation capacity in the Northeast Passage / 203 Meteorological drought monitoring over arid Central Asia / 209 Summary / 216 Chapter 6 SDG 14 Life Below Water Background / 220 Main Contributions / 221 Case Study / 223 Eutrophication assessment of the South China Sea and surrounding waters / 223 Spatiotemporal patterns of coastal aquaculture ponds on the Indochina Peninsula and their impact on offshore chlorophyll-a concentration / 232 Monitoring changes in water environments in the ocean around the Port of Colombo / 238 Monitoring the extent and dynamic change in mangrove forests of some coastal countries / 244 Conservation and utilization of the coastline / 251 Summary / 258 Chapter 7 SDG 15 Life on Land Background / 262 Main Contributions / 264 Case Study / 266 Global/regional forest cover (2019) / 266 Assessment of vulnerability in protected areas of the “Three Seas and One Lake” international basins, 2001-2015 / 271 Spatiotemporal dynamics of forest cover in Southeast Asia / 276 Global Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) progress report / 284 Monitoring and assessing land degradation in five Central Asian countries / 289 Assessment of grassland degradation in Mediterranean Africa / 296 Dynamic monitoring and control measures of land degradation and restoration in Mongolia / 304 Time-series monitoring and decision support of the Mountain Green Cover Index in the Belt and Road Economic Corridors / 311 Assessment of forest changes in Asian elephant habitats / 319 Monitoring forest type of Amur tiger habitat / 325 Global land cover changes in the past 20 years / 331 Potential productivity and water use eff iciency for global terrestrial ecosystems / 339 Global assessment of the impact of population and climate change on the ecosystem material supply capacity of drylands / 347 Summary / 355 Chapter 8 Summary and Prospects / 358 References / 362 Acronyms / 381