Quantitative assessments and dynamic monitoring of indicators based on fine-scale population data are necessary to support the implementation of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda and to comprehensively achieve its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, most population data are collected by administrative units, and it is difficult to reflect true distribution and uniformity in space. To solve this problem, based on fine building information, a geospatial disaggregation method of population data for supporting SDG assessments is presented in this paper. First, Deqing County in China, which was divided into residential areas and nonresidential areas according to the idea of dasymetric mapping, was selected as the study area. Then, the town administrative areas were taken as control units, building area and number of floors were used as weighting factors to establish the disaggregation model, and population data with a resolution of 30 m in Deqing County in 2016 were obtained. After analyzing the statistical population of 160 villages and the disaggregation results, we found that the global average accuracy was 87.08%. Finally, by using the disaggregation population data, indicators 3.8.1, 4.a.1, and 9.1.1 were selected to conduct an accessibility analysis and a buffer analysis in a quantitative assessment of the SDGs. The results showed that the SDG measurement and assessment results based on the disaggregated population data were more accurate and effective than the results obtained using the traditional method.

Rapid population growth has had a significant impact on society, economy and environment, which will challenge the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Spatially accurate and detailed population distribution data are essential for measuring the impact of population growth and tracking progress on the SDGs. However, most population data are evenly distributed within administrative units, which seriously lacks spatial details. There are scale differences between the population statistical data and geospatial data, which makes data analysis and needed research difficult. The disaggregation method is an effective way to obtain the spatial distribution of population with greater granularity. It can also transform the statistical population data from irregular administrative units into regular grids to characterize the spatial distribution of the population, and the original population count is preserved. This paper summarizes the research advances of population disaggregation in terms of methodology, ancillary data, and products and discusses the role of spatial disaggregation of population statistical data in monitoring and evaluating SDG indicators. Furthermore, future work is proposed from two perspectives: challenges with spatial disaggregation and disaggregated population as an Essential SDG Variable (ESDGV).

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data have significant potential for soil moisture monitoring because of their high spatial resolution and independence from cloud coverage. However, it is challenging to retrieve soil moisture from SAR data over vegetated areas, as vegetation significantly affects backscattered radar signals. Auxiliary vegetation information obtained from optical images, such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the leaf area index (LAI), is commonly used to correct vegetation effects. However, it is generally difficult to obtain SAR and optical data in the same area simultaneously, because of the discrepancies in satellite coverage and the effects of cloud coverage. This study focuses on whether vegetation descriptors obtained directly from radar data at L-band can adequately parameterize the semi-empirical backscattering water cloud model (WCM) to support soil moisture retrieval. Four vegetation descriptors (three based on radar images and one based on optical images), were chosen to assess the parameterization and calibration of the WCM and the retrieval accuracy of soil moisture. The results showed that the vegetation descriptor of backscattering at VH polarization outperformed the other three vegetation descriptors (NDVI-derived vegetation water content, radar vegetation index, and the ratio of cross-polarization to VV polarization) in the investigation of four crop types (canola, corn, bean, and wheat) based on the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment in 2012 (SMAPVEX12) in Canada. For the vegetation descriptor of VH, the overall accuracy of retrieved soil moisture was promising by separating into two growth stages, with unbiased root mean squared errors of 0.056, 0.053, 0.098, and 0.079 cm³/cm³ for canola, corn, bean, and wheat, respectively. The results also confirmed that variations in vegetation growth affect the accuracy of soil moisture retrieval. In addition, the retrieval performance was undermined when the vegetation changed dramatically, leading to variations or uncertainty in the vegetation structure. This study provides new insights into soil moisture retrieval methods with active L-band microwave observations.

The UN’s 2030 Agenda defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to ensure the implementation of this global agenda, the UN proposed a systematic follow-up and review through indicator-based tracking and reporting of the progress with statistical and geospatial information toward SDGs at national, regional, and global levels. This has posed many technical and institutional challenges. Although international communities have devoted great attention to this hot topic, most of their work has focused on the conceptual design and preliminary testing. There are very few good practices for a comprehensive measurement and assessment of progress toward SDGs with the integration of statistical and geospatial information at national or local levels. This paper presents the methodology and results of a pioneer project which measured the progress toward SDGs at a local level in China (i.e., Deqing County) by integrating statistical and geospatial information. In this study, a number of technical/institutional issues have been tackled, such as the adoption of appropriate indicators at a local level, availability and acquisition of reliable data sets, and spatiotemporal analysis with a geographical perspective, interaction between SDGs and cross-sector coordination. The major conclusions are (a) the comprehensive progress toward SDGs in Deqing can be most appropriately measured and assessed by integrating geospatial and statistical information; (b) Deqing has made significant economic and social advances while maintaining a good ecological environment over the past few years. The results were released at the first United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress as a good practice and a live example to stimulate discussions.

MODIS (MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) aerosol products are the most widely used satellite retrieved aerosol optic depth (AOD) products, which compensate for the spatial lack of ground-based sun photometer observations. The newly released Collection 6 (C6) aerosol products have some improvements compared to the Collection 5.1 (C5.1) products with optimized algorithms and newly revised upstream products. Additionally, a three-kilometer resolution AOD product was added in the C6 product. In this study, the accuracies and regional applicability of long-term (2001–2015) different MODIS C5.1 and C6 aerosol products in China were evaluated against the 16 AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) observations with observations over more than three years. The overall analysis indicates that the C6 DT (Dark Target) 10 km products slightly improved the retrieval accuracies, with about 3% more data falling within the Expected Error (EE) envelope. However, for Deep Blue (DB) products, the C6 algorithm significantly improved the accuracy over all of China, and increased the successful retrieval number by extending retrieval coverages. Regional analysis demonstrated that the C6 DT 10 km product did not perform well in East China, with only 33.5% of retrievals falling within the EE envelope. For the DB product, the C6 algorithm significantly increased the number successfully retrieved, and was more accurate in all four regions in China. The validation of the DT 3 km product suggests large differences existed between the Terra and Aqua results. The accuracy of the Aqua DT 3 km product is obviously higher than that of the Terra DT 3 km product. The results of the study suggest that proper AOD products need to be considered when evaluating aerosol loading situations in different regions in China.