A review and prospect of annual report on remote sensing monitoring of global ecological environment

Abstract

The Global Ecosystem and Environment Observation Analysis Research Cooperation (GEOARC) is an effort made by China to protect the global ecological environment and actively implement the 2030 sustainable development goals of the United Nations. This paper introduces the positioning and characteristics of GEOARC’s work, and reviews 18 annual reports published by GEOARC from 2012 to 2018 on three topics: typical elements of global ecological environment, global key area and global ecological environment hot issues. Among them, the theme of typical elements of global ecological environment is to monitor and analyze the temporal and spatial changes of typical global ecological environment elements such as vegetation, water body and wetland by means of remote sensing, so as to help global governance, protect the life community of “landscape, forest, field, Lake and grass” and protect the common future of the earth. The theme of the global key areas focus on the “one belt, one road” region, developing countries and fragile ecological areas, helping to build the “community of human destiny”. The theme of global hot issues of ecological environment mainly focus on climate change, food security, urban and rural development, etc., with the purpose of actively safeguarding the common interests of humankind. Finally, the paper summarizes the impact, objective, work plan, and key points of GEOARC. It is pointed out that GEOARC is a long-term work, which should adhere to the principles of openness, cooperation and sharing, attract the participation of the global remote sensing community, and constantly improve its international influence.