The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, set 17 goals that aim to achieve developments with balanced social, economic and environmental sustainability and call for action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Although the SDGs appear to be general some of the goals are relevant to the scope of Marine Geodesy and the research fields of our authors and readers. For example, Goal 13 – Climate action enlists the drastic effects of climate change, including global warming, geo-physical disasters, global sea level rise and others, and calls for “strong political will, increased investment, and using existing technology, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, aiming at 1.5 °C”. Furthermore, Goal 11 – Sustainable cities and communities note that “by 2050, two-thirds of all humanity—6.5 billion people—will be urban”, leading to “a boom in mega-cities”. This goal aims to make cities sustainable by means of “creating career and business opportunities, safe and affordable housing, and building resilient societies and economies”. Finally, Goal 14 – Life below water addresses issues on the world’s oceans, such as fish stock overexploitation, ocean acidification, marine pollution and others. “The SDGs aim to sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems from pollution, as well as address the impacts of ocean acidification. Enhancing conservation and the sustainable use of ocean-based resources through international law will also help mitigate some of the challenges facing our oceans.”
As a forum Marine Geodesy facilitates exchange and discrimination of scientific results and technological advancements in Ocean Surveys, Mapping, and Sensing, which can support many of the SDGs. Particularly, the journal has been actively soliciting and publishing scientific papers on climate change studies with a focus on quantification of global sea level rise and associated impact on coastal regions. The specific methodologies include satellite altimetry, integrated gauge systems, and marine and coastal geographic information systems. Although Marine Geodesy does not directly address policy issues, it has been publishing papers that integrate, for example, coastal development and planning policies with new technologies such as coastal information systems, sensing and forecasting networks. The journal has one of the traditional reader groups in sensing and modeling of the physical environment of oceans. However, the scope of the journal is now also extended to the ecological, biological, and geochemical sides of the coastal and marine environments to address challenges under the climate change background.
In last 10 years, Marine Geodesy has published 7 special issues relevant to the SDGs, ranging from the sea level measuring satellite missions of OSTM/Jason-2 and SARAL/AltiKa, targeted topic of Island and Reef Surveying and Mapping, long-term technology development of Coastal and Marine Geographic Information Systems, to recent challenges and advancements in Cryosphere and Climate Change. In addition, many papers published in our journal have been widely cited and contributed to the building blocks that support the SDGs. Nerem et al. (Citation2010) built a long record of satellite altimetry data from the TOPEX and Jason Altimeter Missions for estimating the mean sea level change through calibrated biases between the missions, taking account of the interannual variation due to ENSO-related processes. The characteristics of tides in the Bay of Bengal were revealed in Sindhu and Unnikrishnan (Citation2013) using a vertically integrated 2D numerical model that was validated with the hourly tide gauge observations. Greenaway, Batts, and Riley (Citation2020) introduced a model to estimate a seafloor area fully covered by an angular swath multibeam echosounder, which can be applied in mapping the remaining regions of the U.S. waters that have not been surveyed to modern standards. Rengstorf et al. (Citation2012) developed a high-resolution habitat suitability model based on terrain parameters derived from multibeam generated bathymetry for monitoring vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep-sea. Zhang et al. (Citation2012) demonstrated a method of oil-spill detection using ENVISAT ASAR images over the coastal waters of Hong Kong. Finally, Yuanming, Li, and Gomes (Citation2010) presented a semi-automated method for shoreline extraction from RADARSAT-2 intensity imagery using thresholding combined with morphological filtering and narrow band level set segmentation techniques.
To strengthen the support for the SDGs Marine Geodesy will publish a Special Issue on Sustainable Marine and Coastal Environments in 2020.
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References
- Greenaway, S. F., A. Batts, and J. Riley. 2020. Are we done yet? An empirical estimator for level of effort for seafloor surveys - including an estimate for the full survey of U.S. waters. Marine Geodesy 43 (2):87–104.
- Nerem, R. S., D. P. Chambers, C. Choe, and G. T. Mitchum. 2010. Estimating mean sea level change from the TOPEX and Jason altimeter missions. Marine Geodesy 33 (suppl 1):435–46.
- Rengstorf, A. M., A. Grehan, C. Yesson, and C. Brown. 2012. Towards high-resolution habitat suitability modeling of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep-sea: Resolving terrain attribute dependencies. Marine Geodesy 35 (4):343–61.
- Sindhu, B., and A. S. Unnikrishnan. 2013. Characteristics of tides in the Bay of Bengal. Marine Geodesy 36 (4):377–407.
- Yuanming, S., J. Li, and G. Gomes. 2010. Shoreline extraction from RADARSAT-2 intensity imagery using a narrow band level set segmentation approach. Marine Geodesy 33 (2–3):187–203.
- Zhang, Y., H. Lin, Q. Liu, J. Hu, X. Li, and K. Yeung. 2012. Oil-spill monitoring in the coastal waters of Hong Kong and vicinity. Marine Geodesy 35 (1):93–106.