National demonstrations presented at third SEN4LDN Living Labs

Our engagement with the core users requires an active effort from SEN4LDN to identify points of contact capable of providing direct feedback to the prototype products and use-cases that can drive product development. Users play a central role in SEN4LDN, meaning that during the algorithm trade-off phase, the SDG/user requirements will steer the design choices. Our approach to Living Labs involves engaging with the SDG Early Adopters at different phases of the product development. 

The Living Labs are part of the agile development approach used by SEN4LDN through continuous interactions with the SDG Early Adopters and through some iterative development cycles with parallel and progressive refinements of the user requirements and the EO solutions developed in the project. 

While the first SEN4LDN Living Labs aimed at identification of user requirements, the second Living Labs were organized to showcase and test prototype products. With the feedback from the Early Adopters, SEN4LDN algorithms were finetuned, and the resulting National Demonstration products were presented at a third round of Living Labs. Also these third Living Labs sessions were led by GFZ (Germany) with the help of Conservation International. These Living Labs were organized with

• Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forests (Portugal) on the 18th of November 2024
• Busitema University (Uganda) on the 19th of November 2024
• Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (Colombia) on the 19th of November 2024

During these sessions, an overview was provided on the latest algorithm developments and national demonstration products of the three land degradation sub-indicators:

• Land cover change by VITO (Belgium)
• Land productivity change by Lund University (Sweden), and
• Carbon stock change bij GFZ (Germany)

The final national demonstration products were made accessible to the users in an online Google Earth Engine application for product exploration and checking, and to foster the discussion and gathering of feedback. 
Also, an online questionnaire was made available to collect specific feedback on product quality and usability, and recommendations on possible further product improvements. 

To broaden the scope of the data products, in January 2025, an Open Stakeholder Living Lab will be organized. This initiative will target not just the SDG Early Adopters but also other SDG practitioners and aims to facilitate active engagement with the user community, which will be crucial in enabling and encouraging uptake of the developed EO-solution to generate national assessment of land degradation and restoration at high spatial resolution.