NASA’s 2019 joint statement with the Central American Integration System (SICA, in Spanish) outlines a broad framework for strengthening capacity for applying Earth observations for societal benefit in Central America. In that context, on August 30 the SERVIR SCO provided an introductory training on the use of Earth observations for monitoring land use change to technical representatives of the Central American Community Coordinating Association for Indigenous Peoples and Peasants (ACICAFOC, in Spanish).
The training responded to ACICAFOC’s interest in integrating geospatial information into their work and reporting activities. The training covered concepts regarding remote sensing fundamentals and explored how the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform can be used for environmental and agricultural monitoring, among other things. Leveraging data from NASA’s Landsat satellites and other sources, the training exercises included data manipulation, analysis and visualization, and the generation of indices like the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Participants were provided with training materials and scripts to reference following the workshop.
The workshop was delivered by SERVIR SCO personnel Lauren Carey, Betzy Hernandez, Natalia Bermudez, and Emil Cherrington.
