In the face of the current crises of climate change, over-exploitation of marine resources and degradation of marine environments there is a growing demand for training in the use of satellite data to support the design and implementation of strategies to meet sustainable development objectives.
Capacity development efforts under EO4SD-marine are designed to support on-going efforts by International Finance Institutions (IFIs) and their client states (CS) to further develop the expertise needed to access, analyse and interpret marine and coastal satellite data in different contexts. We do this in several ways:
- Workshops and hands-on training courses
- Access to data and supporting documentation
- Ad-hoc support in response to user requests
Workshops and hands-on training courses
Courses are designed to increase understanding of how satellite data may be applied to the management of coastal and marine environments and resources, and provide support for users of EO4SD-marine data products.
The training is structured in modules, enabling participants to focus on the specific topics of interest, such as, for example, water quality, bathymetry mapping or oil spill monitoring. Interested parties can get in touch directly by emailing eo4sd|at|noc.ac.uk or register via the open enrollment: sign up at and use the following join code: KCRAG7
The training has two main components:
- a support package that includes the teaching materials of lectures, exercises, sample data and software; and
- training events which comprise: online training, on-site training (if feasible) and remote support.
Main target audiences
The teaching materials are designed to target three groups, each with slightly different training needs:
- Members from International Financial Institutions (IFI) or other funding organizations;
- Management from service organizations such as local authorities or relevant government ministries, and
- Technical staff working within these organizations.
For IFI or other funding organizations the main aim is to raise awareness of current Earth Observation capacity and increase understanding of how the use of EO data, products and services can improve the integrated management of coastal and marine resources.
For management staff of targeted organizations the aim is not only to increase awareness and understanding, but also to support the the integration of Earth Observation data and products into the daily working practices and routines within the organization, order to improve the information available to support planning and policy formulation for sustainable marine and coastal resources management.
For technical staff there is the additional aim of improving their competencies in the handling of available Earth Observation data, products and services in order to generate appropriate information and products required to support planning and management actitivities relevant to the remit of their organisations.
Past training courses
Training course for the West Africa Coastal Areas Management Program (WACA)
The EO4SD team, led in this activity by ITC’s Suhyb Salama, delivered training online to c. 70 participants in April 2020. The topics, selected by the local partners, focused on land cover and coastline change mapping to support the work being carried out to update the West Africa region ‘State of the Coast’ report. MORE – Link to News story
Future training courses
Due to the current COVID situation the team are planning to continue to provide training online in 2021, making use of the CANVAS learning environment, and adapting content to meet the needs of project partners in the key regions where EO4SD is delivering satellite services. Details of course dates will be posted here when available.
The following training course are now confirmed:
- WACA training course on EO data for water quality and pollution monitoring (1-5 February 2021:)
- Indonesian training course (8-12 February 2021)