• Posted 20-Jul-2020

Call for Interest: Earth Observations for Climate Change Impacts on World Heritage Cities

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO), is announcing an initial, open invitation, by GEO Member Greece in collaboration with UNESCO, to gauge the interest and support of the GEO community to propose a Community Activity, incorporating urban cultural heritage aspects into the 2020-2022 Work Programme, in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

As a follow up to the Greek statement that was delivered during the “Action on Climate Change” Session at GEO Week GEO-XVI Plenary in Canberra in November 2019, this proposed Community Activity will draw on the GEO community’s rich expertise to realize the untapped potential of Earth observations to monitor and enable specific mitigation and adaptation strategies to shield urban cultural heritage from climate change risks.

All three GEO priority engagement areas, i.e. the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, will be addressed, allowing for an integrated Earth observation-based effort to create a better future by protecting our past. Furthermore, the activity will support the implementation of the fourth GEO engagement priority under development, the New Urban Agenda, adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in 2016 aimed at bolstering the global commitment to sustainable urbanization where World Heritage Cities play a crucial role.

To express your initial interest in the proposed Community Activity: Earth Observations for Climate Change Impacts on World Heritage Cities, please contact Evangelos Gerasopoulos ([email protected]) and Kyriakos Romios ([email protected]) from the Greek GEO Office by July 31, 2020. Please use this form for your expression of interest.

Source: Group on Earth Observations Blog (https://bit.ly/39afOtl)