Digital Earth for Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Sustainable development is nothing new, but it has proven notoriously difficult to implement in practice. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 17 goals, 169 targets and 232 associated indicators, was approved at the 2015 UN General Assembly and addresses the economic, social and environmental pillars ofdevelopment, aspiring to attain by 2030 a sustainable future that balances equitable prosperity within planetary boundaries. While the goals are universal (i.e., applicable to both developing and developed countries), it is left to individual countries to establish national Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets according to their own priorities and level of ambition in terms of the scale and pace of transformation aspired to.