EO Data: Open Access Availability, Uptake, and Constraints
Speakers/Panelist

Rocio Carrero (Planet)
Pierre C. Sibiry Traore (ICRISAT)
Rahul D. Garg (IIT)
Christoph Aubrecht (European Space Agency)
Vivek Sakhrani (Atlas AI)
Moderator: Kunwar Singh (AidData, William & Mary)

Session Description

Recent innovations in cloud computing, growing built-in data catalogs, and sophisticated methods to analyze Earth Observations offer opportunities to rigorously evaluate the impacts and cost-effectiveness of development interventions. The potential for Earth Observation to guide investments toward cost-effective interventions that are most likely to work, produce maximum benefits, and reach the most people has not yet been fully realized, though undisputedly needed. Several unanswered questions are befitting to this panel for discussion, such as, how Earth Observation has contributed to agriculture impact evaluations and what are the new prospects to increase its uptake to support the decision-making process, specifically in countries facing climate change at an accelerated rate?

The GeoField 2023 Convening, held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome, Italy, brought together 100 experts in impact evaluation, Earth Observation (the use of technologies and techniques to monitor planet Earth remotely, often from space), and development program implementation.

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