StatEO26

1. Agriculture Statistics

This session will highlight best practices and case studies where Earth Observation (EO) has been integrated into agricultural statistics. We welcome contributions demonstrating how EO supports crop-type mapping, yield estimation, seasonal monitoring, and land use change detection, linked to specific statistical outputs (national crop area/yield tables, SDGs/SEEA related indicators) and the compiling authority). Contributions can showcase operational examples, methodological innovations, how EO is enhancing the timeliness, granularity, and cost-effectiveness of agricultural data production, integration with traditional data sources, and institutional practices that have enabled the uptake of EO in agricultural data production.

Furthermore, use cases can include

• Design-based area and yield estimation using EO (e.g., model-assisted regression, map-corrected estimators, dual-frame designs) and uncertainty reporting aligned with official statistics.
• Survey-calibrated mapping and operational accuracy/variance reporting in national releases.

We encourage contributions from both European and international countries, with emphasis on operational examples and clear routes to uptake by statistical authorities.

2. Natural Capital Accounting

This session invites presentations on how Earth Observation (EO) data is being used to support Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) frameworks, such as the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), including ecosystem accounting. Examples can showcase how EO contributes to the assessment of the changes in the stock and condition of natural capital, the assessment of ecosystem extent, condition and services, as well as other environmental accounting frameworks such as air emissions, water, land and Ocean accounts, with traceable methods and description of metadata.

We encourage provision of guidance on calibration/validation protocols for ecosystem extent/condition consistent with design-based inference and traceable metadata, including change-over-time uncertainty.

3. Integration of EO into SDGs and environmental Policy Reporting

This session will focus on the use of Earth Observation (EO) to support national reporting in key environmental policy frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Biodiversity Framework. The contributions can showcase how EO can be integrated into National Statistical Systems to track development policies and sustainability progress, and how EO can support the production of targets and indicators within such policy frameworks, particularly where geospatial data can add value. The presentations should describe the processing steps and algorithms used, and reporting on uncertainty and accuracy. Presentations could also highlight aspects related to cost effectiveness and the operational status/technology readiness level of the proposed solutions.

4. Land Use / Land Cover (LULC)

This session aims to showcase operational approaches and best practices for generating and using Earth Observation (EO)-derived Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data in statistical reporting. Presentations may include methodologies for classification and change detection, integration with institutional operational practices, and use in cross-sectoral analyses (e.g., agriculture, forestry, urban planning). Contributions can highlight how EO-based LULC data is being validated and used in regular statistical production cycles or geospatial frameworks.

Given the intended use of LCLU maps for statistics, two important aspects for presentation to address are the area-adjusted accuracy and map-to-stats conversion (e.g., Olofsson-style post-classification inference), plus reporting unit alignment (grid/NUTS/administrative).

The presenters are encouraged to highlight links with spatial information directives (e.g. INSPIRE) and land registries, specifying the reporting units utilized (e.g. grid, NUTS) to ensure statistical comparability.

5. People & Urban Areas

This session will focus how Earth Observation (EO) is being used to generate data on population distribution, urban growth, urban settlements, and access to services. This session will focus on how EO can support statistical reporting on human settlements, including integration with census data/reporting units, and the production of disaggregated indicators (e.g., by density, built-up area, green space per capita). Examples may include the use of EO for dynamic population modelling, integration with census frames and small area estimation, urban expansion/building footprints, bias checks when using building footprints/nightlights for population proxies informal-settlement/slum mapping, impervious-surface and soil-sealing trends, urban heat-island, etc.

6. Economy and Infrastructure

This session will explore the use of Earth Observation (EO) to support statistics on infrastructure, economic activities and territorial development. We welcome contributions on mapping and monitoring transport networks, industrial zones, construction activity, or economic proxies derived from remote sensing (e.g. construction permits, cadastral/land registries, building detection, night-time lights, vessel-port authority). Presentations may show how EO is being used alongside traditional statistical sources to provide insights into economic trends, regional inequalities, or development monitoring. Approaches that improve the spatial granularity or timeliness of economic indicators and infrastructure location using EO are of particular interest.

7. Sustainability indicators

This session focuses on Earth Observation (EO)-based monitoring of policy-relevant indicators for environmental sustainability and climate action. Examples may include monitoring of forest cover change, land degradation and habitat destruction, biodiversity, and anthropogenic emissions. Submissions should describe how EO-derived data is or could be integrated with national inventories, validated, and used for official reporting or environmental statistics.