Digital Earth: A platform for the SDGs and green transformation at the global and local level, employing essential SDGs variables

Figures & data

Table 1. The proposed list of ESDGVs (See Appendix A for more detailed information). Notations: ECV – Essential Climate Variables, EBV – Essential Biodiversity Variables, EWV – Essential Water Variables

EV layer	EV category	ESDGV	EV products	EO Contribution	Also belong to
People and Social & Ethical aspects	Life	1.1.1. Demographics	Population density, Age structure, Sex ratio, Household size/distribution	Y
		1.1.2. Population births	Live births, Registered births with a civil authority	N
		1.1.3. Population deaths	Deaths by natural disaster, Deaths by diseases, Deaths by road traffic injuries, Deaths by suicide, Deaths by air pollution, Deaths by drinking unsafe water, Deaths by unintentional poisoning, Deaths by intentional homicide, Deaths by direct conflict, Deaths during migration	N
	Health	1.2.1. Diseases	Distribution of anamenia cases, Distribution of tuberculosis cases, Distribution of HIV cases, Distribution of malaria cases, Distribution of hepatitis B cases, Distribution of neglected tropical diseases cases, Distribution of substance use disorders cases, Distribution of bloodstream infections cases	N
		1.2.2. Human physical characteristics	Weight, Height	N
		1.2.3. Immunization coverage	Population covered with vaccines	N
		1.2.4. Injuries	Fatal and non-fatal occupational injuries, Injured by natural disaster	N
	Economic Conditions and Employment	1.3.1. Food insecurity	Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)	N
		1.3.2. Land tenure	Population with land tenure	N
		1.3.3. Banking, insurance and financial services	Population with access to financial services	N
		1.3.4. Employment status	Employment distribution	N
	Education	1.4.1. Educational status	Distribution of researchers in population, Proficiency level in population in different education level, School completion rate, Participation rate in education, Education indicators, Distribution of qualified teachers	N
	Welfare	1.5.1. Social protection floors	Proportion of population covered by at least one social protection cash benefit, Proportion of children covered by social protection benefits, Proportion of women giving birth covered by maternity benefits, Proportion of persons with disabilities receiving benefits, Proportion of unemployed receiving benefits, Proportion of workers covered in case of employment injury, Proportion of older persons receiving a pension, Proportion of vulnerable persons receiving benefits, Proportion of poor population receiving social assistance cash benefit	N
	Lifestyle, Environment, and Safety	1.6.1. Access to Internet and ICT devices	Population with ICT skills, Population who owns a mobile telephone	N
	Dignity and Gender Equality	1.7.1. Women and children	Unpaid domestic and care work, Dependency status of women and girls, Population with well-being tracked, Adolescent birth rate, Distribution of married or in union women, Women’s satisfaction with family planning methods	N
		1.7.2. Violence and harassment	Population subjected to violence, Population that feel safe walking alone around the area they live, Population experienced a dispute, Population experienced discrimination or harassment, Prison population, Population possessing illegal weapons distribution	N
		1.7.3. Kidnapping and trafficking	Population victims of human trafficking and kidnapping	N
	Trust in the Public Sector	1.8.1. Peoples experience in public services	Population experienced in contacting with a public official, Population satisfied with public services, Population trust in decision-making of government	N
		1.8.2. Peoples experience in and basic facilities	Population using safely managed sanitation services, Population using hand-washing facility with soap and water	N
Governance/Policy development	People	2.1.1. Trust in the Public Sector	Urban planning and management faction, Gender ratio in government agency	N
		2.1.2. Human security and dignity	Legal framework that guarantees women’s equal rights (percentage of achievement, 0–100), National disaster risk reduction strategies (Score of adoption and implementation), Countries with migration policies to facilitate safe, regular and responsible migration	N
	Economy	2.2.1. Subsidies	Agricultural export subsidies, Fossil-fuel subsides	N
		2.2.2. Amounts provided and mobilized in United States dollars	Amounts provided and mobilized by country	N
		2.2.3. Taxes and tariffs	Worldwide weighted tariff-average, most-favoured-nation status, preferential status, by type of product, Average tariff applied by developed countries, most-favoured-nation status, preferential status, by type of product	N
		2.2.4. Sustainable tourism	Implementation of standard accounting tools to monitor the economic and environmental aspects of tourism	N
	Infrastructure	2.3.1. Sustainable consumption and production	Implementation of sustainable consumption and production policy instruments, by country	N
		2.3.2. ESD/GCED in national education	Coverage of global citizenship education in education system, Coverage of education for sustainable development in education system	N
	ELSS	2.4.1. Water flows	Degree of integrated water resources management implementation, by country	N
		2.4.2. Biodiversity	Implementation of national legislation and adequately resourcing the prevention or control of invasive alien species, by country	N
	International cooperation	2.5.1. Country participation in international organizations	Proportion of members and voting rights in international organizations, by developed country	N
		2.5.2. International frameworks/policies implementation	Public access to constitution, statutory and/or policy, by country, Implementation of statistical legislation that complies with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, by country, Population and housing census frequency, by country, International Health Regulations (IHR) capacity, by type of IHR capacity (%), Score of adoption and implementation of national DRR strategies in line with the Sendai Framework, by country, Implementation of nationally determined contributions, long-term strategies, national adaptation plans and adaptation communications as reported to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, by country, Existence of independent national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles, by country, Existence of national strategy for youth employment, by country, Compliance level with labour rights based on International Labour Organization (ILO) and national legislation, Parties meeting their commitments and obligations in transmitting information on hazardous waste, and other chemicals as required, by international conventions (Basel, Minamata, Montreal, Rotterdam, Stockholm), “Number of signed and inforce bilateral investment treaty (BIT), by country, Mechanisms in place to enhance policy coherence for sustainable development (%), by country, Progress in multi-stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks that support the achievement of the sustainable development goals, by provider/recipient, by country, Implementation of international instruments aiming to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, by country, Score for the implementation/ratification of and accession to UNCLOS and the implementing agreements, by country, Implementation of legislative, administrative and policy frameworks to ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits, by country., Implementation of established national targets in accordance with or similar to Aichi Biodiversity Target 2, by country, Degree of application of a legal/regulatory/policy/institutional framework which recognizes and protects access rights for small-scale fisheries, Marine areas management using ecosystem-based approaches, by country, Implementation progress of Sendai Framework disaster risk reduction strategies	N
Infrastructure	Hard infrastructure	3.1.1. Water infrastructure	Drinking water infrastructure, Basic sanitation infrastructure, Basic hygiene infrastructure	N
		3.1.2. Energy infrastructure	Electricity infrastructure, Clean energy supply area map	Y
		3.1.3. Waste infrastructure	Waste collection infrastructure	N
		3.1.4. Transportation infrastructure	Road network, Public transportation network	Y
		3.1.5. Genetic conservation infrastructure	Genebanks distribution, Maintained materials in genebank	N
		3.1.6. Information and communication infrastructure	Mobile network coverage map, Mobile/Internet users distribution, Internet coverage map	N
		3.1.7. Earth monitoring and measurement networks	Air quality measurement stations network, pH measurement stations network	N
	Soft infrastructure	3.2.1. Public health	Hospitals/Health centers location and facility/resource map	N
		3.2.3. Education system	Schools location and capacity/resource map	N
		3.2.4. Administrative/Government	Gender distribution in government agency	N
		3.2.5. Financial system	Banks and ATM location map	N
Economy	General	4.1.1. Gross domestic product	Gross domestic product/growth rate, Consumer Price Index, Gross national income, Gross value added, Per capital income	Y
	Household	4.2.1. Household expenditures	Household expenditures, disaggregated by sector	N
		4.2.2. Household income	Household income, by source	N
		4.2.3. Household consumption	Alcohol consumption, Tobacco consumption, Energy consumption, by activity, type of energy, Domestic material consumption, Material footprint, Transportation volume, passenger and freight, Individual daily food consumption, Foods and services price	Y
	Business Investment/Production	4.3.1. Labour	Employee income, Labour spent, Employment amount, Migrant worker recruitment cost	N
		4.4.1. Production	Productivity and average income by producer, Agriculture production volume, cost, volume sold, and sale price, Food production quantity and loss percentage, Water usage, Organization publishing of sustainability report	N	ECV/EWV
		4.4.2. Business financial flows	Loans and Debts of producers, Private flows, Illicit flows, Foreign Direct Investment, Remittance volume and cost	N
	Government	4.5.1. Government spendings	Government budgets, Government expenditures, Public-private cooperation amount	N
		4.5.2. Government revenues	Government revenues	N
		4.5.3. Financial flows for government	Official development assistance, Other official flows	N
	Imports and Exports	4.6.1. Import & Exports	Exports of goods and services	N
	Economic loss	4.7.1. Economic loss due to disasters	Economic loss attributable to disasters, by type of disaster	N
	Waste and Emission	4.8.1. Waste flows	Solid waste generation, Hazardous waste generation, Managed solid waste, Managed hazardous waste, Wastewater generation, Wastewater treated	N
		4.8.2. Greenhouse gas emissions	CO2 emission, CH4 emission, N2O emission, PFCs emission, HFCs emission, SF6 emission, NF3 emission	Y	ECV
Earth-life support system	Atmosphere	5.1.1. Air quality	PM2.5, PM10	Y
		5.2.2. Water flows	Water quality map, Water level map, Freshwater withdrawal map, Groundwater map	Y	ECV/EWV
	Land	5.2.1. Land cover	Productive and sustainable agriculture area, Land cover and land cover changes map, Land use map, Degraded land area	Y	ECV
		5.2.2. Water flows	Water quality map, Water level map, Freshwater withdrawal map, Groundwater map	Y	ECV/EWV
		5.2.3. Elevation	Elevation map	Y
		5.2.4. Biomass	Above-ground biomass	Y	ECV
	Ocean	5.3.1. Nutrients	Ocean Concentrations of Silica, Ocean Concentrations of Phosphorus, Ocean Concentrations of Nitrogen	Y	ECV
		5.3.2. Ocean color	Chlorophyll-a concentration	Y	ECV
		5.3.3. Ocean flow	Surface currents, Deepwater currents	Y	ECV
		5.3.4. Ocean waste	Plastic patches and beach litter map, Seafloor litter map	Y
		5.3.5. Ocean acidity	Hydrogen ions concentration (pH), Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), Carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO2), Total alkalinity (TA)	N	ECV
	Biodiversity	5.4.1. Species diversity	Species distribution and population abundance, Population structure by age/size class, Extinction risk map	Y	EBV
		5.4.2. Fish stocks	Fish stocks map	Y	EBV
		5.4.3. Traded wildlife	Species-product unit for traded wildlife	N

Figure 1. Conceptual data flow of the Digital Earth platform as applied to SDGs

Figure 2. Global Digital Earth ecosystem

Figure 3. Architecture of the proposed platform

Figure 4. Processing flow of a typical analysis

Figure 5. Comparison of nighttime-light change data and mobility trend data

Figure 6. Visualization of changes in nighttime light intensity in three metropolitan regions from February to May 2020, using the proposed Digital Earth platform

Figure 7. Nighttime lights, population and electricity infrastructure layers to support SDG 7

Table 2. Representative properties of transmission cables employed

Voltage class	Model name	Maximum operating temperature (°C)	Diameter (mm)	AC resistance (Ω/km) at 25°C – 50°C – 75°C
154 kV	T(ACSR) 1520	150 (90)	52.8	0.0195–0.022 – 0.025
275 kV	T(ACSR) 410	150 (90)	28.5	0.0728–0.080 – 0.087
500 kV	T(ACSR) 810	150 (90)	38.4	0.0387–0.042 – 0.046

Figure 8. Visualization of power line capacity change for a 3.7°C warming scenario for (a) ACSR and (b) TACSR transmission cables

Figure 9. Transmission towers in Japan located within 25 km of a coastline

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author – Professor Hiromichi Fukui ([email protected]), upon reasonable request.