Open Earth Monitor — Global Workshop 2023

This workshop will show the current tools we have available at IIASA to generate reference data for training and validation to be used in ML models and to assess the accuracy and performance of the output products the different OEMC monitors are going to generate. We show how, on the one hand, these tools can be used by experts, as well as, the crowd or citizens. The tools being presented will be geo-wiki, picture pile as well as a newly developed google streetview in-situ tool. Examples of how these tools can be used for monitoring drivers of deforestation, improving forest management information as well as crop type mapping. Examples from previous projects and applications will be shown. We furthermore demo two deep dives on how citizen contributions in particular picture pile can help to collect reference data for the crop monitor. Some examples from an existing ESA project Crowd2Train will be featured. We furthermore show how potentially the near real-time forest disturbance monitor (RADD Alerts) can be used in combination with picture pile to, on the one hand, increase the confidence in those alerts and, on the other hand, how such approaches can potentially help to raise awareness about deforestation issues for the wider public.