Highlights of the 2023 Geo for Good Summit

Google Earth

·

Follow

Published in

Google Earth and Earth Engine

·

5 min read

·

Nov 9, 2023

--

1

Listen

Share

By Raleigh Seamster, Senior Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach

In October, we hosted our 12th annual Geo for Good Summit , convening 450 developers, practitioners, and data scientists who use our geospatial platforms for planetary sustainability and human resilience from across nonprofit, academic, public sector, private sector, and Indigenous peoples and local communities.

If you weren’t able to join us at Geo for Good, you can catch up by watching our keynotes and sessions . Below are some of the highlights.

We highlighted new features, datasets, products and programs in the Oct 10 Morning Keynotes:

• Opening Remarks : Rebecca Moore, the Director of Google Earth, Earth Engine, and Outreach, introduced the Geo for Good Impact Awards program to recognize the Geo for Good community’s positive impact in the areas of GHG emission reduction, climate change adaptation and environmental protection.
• Google Earth : Earth’s most recent update is optimized for productivity, supports cross platform workflows and map making on mobile, and enables generative design for real estate and clean energy development.
• Google Earth Engine : Featured updates such as Earth Engine Python experience improvements, Cloud Score+, Vertex AI and BigQuery integrations in Earth Engine, and more.
• Environment APIs : the environment tools newly launched by Google that help with assessing Air quality conditions and Solar panel system design.

We celebrated the Geo for Good community’s impact with over 50 speakers from across the globe:

• Oct 10 Afternoon Plenary : MapBiomas on large scale impacts for forest and land cover use change; Woodwell Climate Research Center and Arizona State University on tracking Arctic permafrost thaw; U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service on their landscape change monitoring system.
• Oct 11 Morning Plenary : United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization on accelerating forest monitoring for high-integrity MRV; USGS on building capacity with SilvaCarbon and Earth Engine; and ECAM and CONAQ on a community-centered approach to climate mitigation.
• Oct 11 Afternoon Plenary : Environmental Defense Fund on sustainable water management and data to action around air quality and methane emissions; Global Fishing Watch on supporting sustainable fisheries with satellite technology and open data
• Oct 12 Morning Plenary : RESOLVE on 30x30 and global conservation needs; Lower Similkameen Indian Band on protecting and restoring Indigenous lands with dynamic monitoring; Jamaica Conservation Development Trust on Google Earth in conservation.
• Environmental Protection ? Insights and Metrics Lightning Talks : Featuring topics around advancing nature conservation and the protection, management and restoration of Earth’s natural resources through insights and metrics. Speakers include: Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, Pennsylvania State University, World Bank, Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), MapBiomas, Mara Elephant Project, University of California, Santa Cruz, and The Nature Conservancy Brasil
• Environmental Protection ? Engaging the Community Lightning Talks : Featuring topics around advancing nature conservation and the protection, management and restoration of Earth’s natural resources through engaging communities. Speakers include: Wilderness Society (Australia), Colorado State University, Cayes Botanical Garden, MetaMeta, Stellenbosch University, EcoCiencia, Clark University, Blue Ventures, University of Hawai‘i at M?noa K?ne‘ohe, Restor
• Climate Change Adaptation Lightning Talks : Featuring topics around using mapping tools for resilience and adaptation to the worst impacts of climate change. Speakers include: Anna University, Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), Desert Research Institute, UC Berkeley, Woolpert and University of Alaska Fairbanks, The Freshwater Trust, Farmer’s Business Network, Inc, ??Michigan State University, UC Irvine.
• Climate Change Mitigation Lightning Talks : Featuring topics around mitigating climate change through carbon emissions reductions and nature-based solutions. Speakers include: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Pune Knowledge Cluster, The University of British Columbia, CSIC, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Lab.Quapa-USP, MITSUI & CO., LTD., University of Colorado Boulder, McGill University
• People and the Planet Lightning Talks : Featuring topics around humanitarian relief, equity, inclusion and social impact related to climate and environment. Speakers include NASA Indigenous Peoples Initiative at BAERI/NASA Ames Research Center, Arctic Eider Society, Williams College, Oregon State University, DevRA International, University College London, Spatial Thoughts, VorGeo

We expanded technically knowledge with 35 breakout sessions taught by Googlers, partners, and community members, with a focus on new features, datasets, and capabilities such as:

• The new version of Google Earth 10 was highlighted in Google Earth Web and Mobile Essentials for Land Managers
• Environment APIs like the Air Quality and Solar APIs, launched earlier this year
• Operational use of Earth Engine: Earth Engine + Cloud Theory , Bringing traditional on-prem workflows to the Cloud and Earth Engine , Building a Wildfire Alerting System
• The Python experience in Earth Engine: Python vs Code Editor , Extending Earth Engine’s Python experience with geemap and a full introductory workshop series on Earth Engine and Python .
• Machine Learning and Earth Engine: Geospatial Machine Learning: An Introduction , Machine Learning with Earth Engine’s built-in classifiers , Neural Networks 1 and Neural Networks 2
• Data Interoperability: Getting your data into and out of Earth Engine
• Datasets: Earth Engine data catalogs and Cloud Score+

Find the complete list of technical session videos here .

We dove deeper on big sustainability challenges and potential solutions in applied tracks with thought leaders across the community:

• Climate & Carbon Track: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Ethiopia’s Oromia REDD+ Coordination Unit, USGS, Yale School of the Environment on Earth Engine for REDD ; and Yale University, NASA, Universitat de Valencia and The Nature Conservancy on Earth Engine for Nature-based climate solutions
• Forest, Agriculture & Sustainable Sourcing Track: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, MapBiomas, NGIS, Louis Dreyfus Company and World Resources Institute on Understanding the EU Deforestation Regulation and the role of geospatial data and NASA-SERVIR, Spatial Informatics Group, Trase/SEI and The Nature Conservancy Brasil on Commodity mapping in Earth Engine: what’s current, what’s needed, and what’s coming? ; Regrow on Monitoring Field Level Practices at Continental Scales to Enable Resilient Agricultural
• Climate Risk & Adaptation Track :, Climate Engine and Spatial Informatics Group on Partner Solutions for Climate Risk & Resilience ; and World Resources Institute, Sonoma Technology Inc., UCLA, KBR Inc. (Contractor to USGS EROS) and The New School on Climate Risk & Adaptation
• 30x30 and the Global Biodiversity Framework Track : UNEP-WCMC, World Resources Institute, Conservation Science Partners, Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation Planning Technologies and Colorado State University on monitoring Habitats & Ecosystems ; Wildlife Insights, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Rainforest Connection, The Jane Goodall Institute, Spatial Informatics Group, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and Nature Metrics on monitoring Species

You can find more information about the Geo for Good Summit here and join our announcements list to hear about upcoming events.