SMURBS was invited and presented its work at the EuroGEOSS Workshop 2018 (formerly the GEO European Projects’ Workshop) that was held in Geneva from 12-14 September 2018 at the University of Geneva and the nearby Museum of Ethnography. The event was co-hosted by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the University of Geneva and the European Commission.

SMURBS participated in the session “SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities” that explored the current scenery as set in the New Urban Agenda and the potential role that Earth Observation can play. The session was chaired and moderated by the co-ordinator of SMURBS, Dr. Evangelos Gerasopoulos (NOA).

On behalf of SMURBS, Orestis Speyer presented project’s major achievements of its 1st year and plans for the first quarter of year 2. He outlined the approach for addressing EO fragmentation, through integrated solutions from its wide consortium of EO experts as well as active networking with a growing number of EO projects and initiatives. He also highlighted some recurring user needs and existing gaps in the EO domain as established by project activities that could help establish a baseline for the current scenery.

At the same time, SMURBS had the opportunity to learn and prepare uptake from other major EO activities in the areas of urban growth, where integration of satellite and UAV data with socio-economic information enables new pathways for policy makers, the area of Citizen Science which has a huge complementary potential to EO activities and citizens’ awareness raising and finally, in the area of commercial exploitation, where an SME network put emphasis on the local component. Finally, the session concluded with the outlining of the workflow from Essential Variables (EVs) (or even Urban EVs) to Sustainable Development Goals Indicators. It was suggested that this quite generalized frame may present another way of addressing EO fragmentation by offering a minimalistic but common way forward.