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The GEO-LDN
Initiative launches a competition
to design a
land use planning software for Land Degradation
Neutrality
Bonn,
20 July 2020 – An international technology
competition to design software that can support
well-informed land use decisions is launched today
by the Group
on Earth Observation Land Degradation Neutrality
(GEO-LDN) Initiative.
As reported
by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
up to 70% of the Earth’s ice-free land has already
been transformed from its natural state, mainly to
meet the demand for food, raw materials and human
settlements. “As the pace of land conversion
continues to rise, we need to shift the focus of
land conservation efforts to the point when land
use decisions are made, so that the trade-offs
from competing demands for limited land resources
can be navigated successfully,” says the UNCCD
Lead Scientist Dr. Barron Orr.
Land
Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is a unique approach
that balances the expected loss of productive land
with the recovery of already degraded areas. LDN
strategically places its three pillars of
conservation, sustainable land management and
restoration in the context of land use planning.
Today, over 120 countries have committed to set
national voluntary LDN targets. However, as reported
by the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI),
limited national progress is evident when it comes
to establishing effective integrated land use
planning systems and embedding a neutrality
mechanism into them.
Recognizing the
importance of filling this critical gap, UNCCD
country Parties tasked the SPI with the
development of a demonstration, resulting from an
open call, of how LDN can be incorporated into
existing open source land use planning and
trade-off analysis tools. To address this mandate,
the GEO-LDN Initiative and the SPI are launching a
competition.
The challenge is to develop a
software that can support the implementation of a
“neutrality mechanism” within a well-established
open source model. “This no-net-loss land use
planning module would help users to map
anticipated future impacts of land use decisions
for a given area. A planner would be able to
generate a scenario where all expected losses of
productive land can be counterbalanced with
planned gains for each land type,” explains Dr.
Orr.
The purpose of the competition is to
inspire innovation and collective action towards
LDN. Eligible participants include teams composed
of at least one technical implementer and at least
one end-user, such as a local government
institution involved in territorial planning, a
civil society organization engaged in sustainable
land management or an indigenous community
fighting against land degradation and land take.
Winning solutions will be promoted by the GEO-LDN
Initiative and the UNCCD for use by countries who
are setting voluntary LDN targets and reporting on
SDG Indicator 15.3.1 “Proportion of land that is
degraded over total land area.” The winning team
will receive financial and technical support
valued at USD100,000 to transform their prototype
into an operational and scalable
tool.
For
more information, please visit the competition’s
website: https://www.geo-ldn.org/
or contact Ms. Sara Minelli smin...@unccd.int, Programme
Officer on Monitoring and Assessment.
For
media-related questions contact: wwisch...@unccd.int
or pr...@unccd.int
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 7:44
PM
Subject: GEO-LDN Initiative launches
competition to design a land use planning software
for Land Degradation Neutrality
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The UNCCD is an
international agreement on good land
stewardship. It helps people, communities and
countries to create wealth, grow economies and
secure enough food and water and energy, by
ensuring land users have an enabling environment
for sustainable land management. Through
partnerships, the Convention’s 197 Parties set
up robust systems to manage drought promptly and
effectively. Good land stewardship based on a
sound policy and science helps integrate and
accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals, builds resilience to climate
change and prevents biodiversity
loss. | | |
Copyright © 2017*
United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification*, All rights
reserved.
For more information on the
Press Release, contact
Wagaki Wischnewski
Public
Information and Media Officer
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020
7:44 PM
Subject: GEO-LDN Initiative
launches competition to design a land use planning
software for Land Degradation Neutrality
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