Social Benefits Assessment of Earth Observation Missions Through the SDG2030

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, subscribed by a ll the United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a sha red direction towards a sustainable thriving of the humankind a nd the planet. The Agenda lists 17 goa ls, the Susta inable Development Goals (SDGs), which state a path to be followed by all the countries within 2030 for a global development. Earth orbiting sa tellites a nd especially Low Earth Orbit (LEO) sa tellites lie in a privileged loca tion to monitor our pla net. This a llows Ea rth observation (EO) missions to contribute to the a chievement of the SDGs, a s extensively recognised by both space a gencies a nd the UN. In this pa per, a new methodology is presented to provide a gencies, governments a nd stakeholders a tool to a ssess the societa l benefits of EO missions. The proposed approach a ims at quantifying the social value rating of the missions through the a chievement of the SDGs. For this purpose, nine services provided to Earth by EO missions have been identified: Built-up la nd (i.e. a ll kinds of man-made constructions), Agriculture, Wild na ture, Geology, Limnology, Ocea nography, Meteorology, Air Qua lity Monitoring a nd Hazards Monitoring. Following the work of Sca lera et a l., the eva luation of the socia l benefits is ca rried out by introducing four indices rela ting sa tellite pa yloads to these services, which a re linked to the SDGs. The four indices focus on the payloads a nd orbit main characterising fa ctors: temporal resolution, spatial resolution, spectral efficiency and Earth coverage. The disserta tion is currently limited to repea ting Sun-synchronous circula r low Ea rth orbits, which represent the ma jority of EO missions, a nd both passive and SAR-sensors a re a nalysed. The investigation ca n also be rearranged as a tool to maximise the social outcome of a mission during its design phase. The model is a pplied to the Copernicus program a nd a few more missions, to a ssess their contribution to the a chievement of the SDG2030. In general, passive instruments show a higher versatility in terms of social performances, while SARs ga in better scores but focused on fewer goals.