Space-Based Data for Climate Change Adaptation: The Need to Identify Pathways for Access and Use in Early and Non-Space-Faring Countries

摘要

As the impacts of climate change become more pressing, governments are increasingly undergoing processes of adaptation for their infrastructure and services. Without such adaptation, livelihoods, and lives, will be lost. In recent years, space-based data (SBD), such as visual, spectral, and altimetry derived information from Earth observation satellites has been recognized as a key requirement for effective adaptation. Despite a lack of direct access, there are cases of SBD being used, or proposed, for adaptation initiatives in early/non-space faring countries. Notwithstanding successful cases, reports from leading international institutions regarding the insights of actors within these countries have consistently reiterated three problems regarding the proliferation of SBD. First, knowledge and acquisition of data by practitioners in non-space faring countries does not occur in a timely manner. Second, technical capacity to turn SBD into useful products for planning and policy making can be limited or lacking. And finally, there is a lack of empirical research on 'lessons learned' from successful access to, and use of, SBD. In this paper we argue there is a pressing need for international research into the pathways of access between global SBD efforts and adaptation practitioners at local scales. We propose an in-depth international multi-stakeholder analysis to characterize the public, private and civil society networks through which practitioners in early/non-space faring developing countries successfully acquire(d) SBD for adaptation initiatives using a framework to assess multilevel cooperation in an international context. Through this process, pathways of successful acquisition, and use, of SBD can be identified and understood. Such novel, empirical, qualitative investigation is argued as necessary as it will inform both researchers and governments on the strategies for, and challenges of, acquiring and using SBD for climate change adaptation.