Early warning system Strata has been approved as an accredited climate tool on the international Space Climate Observatory. The announcement was made by Space4Climate at the Global Space for Climate Conference (GLOC) in Oslo, Norway, on May 24, 2023.
Strata is an early warning system to identify where climate change could impact areas already affected by natural disasters or conflict. The project was led by Edinburgh University and developed in collaboration with Earth Blox and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The Space Climate Observatory (SCO) is an international initiative, with 32 signatories including the UK, and Space4Climate is the official SCO UK coordination point for the UK Space Agency. SCO-accredited climate tools feature on its interactive website where those looking for trustworthy and reliable tools can search by topic, geographical area and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) they meet.
Each applicant must demonstrate that their product or project meets 11 different criteria as an operational tool for climate decision-makers, fully leveraging the potential of satellite data together with socio-economic data for climate monitoring, mitigation and adaptation at a local scale. The tool must be co-designed with end-users to answer specific needs. It should be able to be easily modified to be adapted to other geographic areas facing similar climate challenges.
Kristina Tamane, Space Sector Business Development Lead at University of Edinburgh, said: “We are delighted to get the SCO recognition for the Strata project, delivered with our partners in the United Nations and Earth Blox. Decision-making tools like Strata are a key part of the offer from the University of Edinburgh around climate change mitigation using big data sets and world-leading expertise to make a real difference globally.”
About Strata
Strata was co-designed as a tool to assist over 130 UN country teams bring together data from diverse sources and give them greater clarity on where stresses were at t heir highest. By identifying the stresses from different sources, and converging them into one platform, users are able to see the “hotspots” – those areas most at risk.
Powered by Earth Blox, the Strata platform supports the United Nations’ need to determine where environmental and climate stresses are converging and contributing to increased risk of maladaptation, fragility, migration, and conflict. Strata integrates environment and climate stressors whose outputs can be analysed on Earth Blox, encompassing precipitation, flooding, fires, tree loss, and land productivity, among others. Earth Blox supports the Strata project for monitoring climate change, deforestation, urban expansion, and large-scale disaster mapping.
Read the full announcement on the SCO listing from Space4Climate here: 1ST UK CLIMATE TOOLS ACCEPTED FOR SPACE CLIMATE OBSERVATORY.