Workshop Format: The Workshop will be organized around four sessions covering the latest advances, emerging methods and technologies  and future challenges on the use and assimilation of remote sensing data, products and services including the topic of the water – energy – food nexus. Each session will open with presentations by two distinguished keynote speakers, which will set the stage for an open discussion among all participants, followed by short oral presentations and poster viewing. Sessions will conclude with discussion wrapping up the key elements of the presentations and posters, aimed at identifying priority research areas and opportunities for collaboration. Based on the experience from the two previous joint workshops, lively discussions with high levels of audience participation are anticipated.

Session 1. Synergy of remote sensing technologies for land-use change monitoring

Dynamic interactions among the hydrological cycle, the carbon footprint of land utilization and the demand for food production define our present and future well-being. Satellite observations and models can be utilized to support management and for land-use change scenarios, as well as help understand the balance between competing demands for land and water. Increased availability of free and open data from multimodal sources of remote sensing systems, is creating new opportunities to implement robust multi-level sampling strategies and generate spatially and temporally finer information by combining data from different sensors. This session provides insight into recent progress in the use of mutli-source remote sensing data to study land-cover and land-use change.

Session 2. The role of earth observations within the Water – Energy – Food nexus

Land-use change is integral to the study of the water-energy-food nexus. Remote sensing can provide information on land-cover change and associated abiotic/biotic variables, as well as the associated ecosystem functions and services. Environmental and resource management challenges are resulting from the need to balance increasing and competing demands for water, energy and food. Quantitative and verifiable mapping and change detection are needed. With the increased availability of Earth Observation, data are being applied to address questions at the nexus. Latest achievements in this research area will be presented and discussed.

Session 3. Social and behavioral aspects of land use supported by remote sensing observations

Land-use decisions are made by people. Social science can help provide an understanding of the decision-making process and the drivers of the land-use change that we detect using remote sensing. A number of research projects are now addressing issues such as governance, institutions, labor and land tenure, which raise questions beyond the traditional physical science and remote sensing of land cover change. This session presents and promotes the amalgamation of remote sensing products and social science to address questions of land use change.

Session 4. Advances and outlook in the processing and analysis of remotely sensed data

With the significant increase in remote sensing satellite data volumes and associated processing needs, traditional methods and approaches to data processing, image analysis and standard software packages fall short of what is needed. High performance computing, high speed internet and cloud computing offer new solutions for processing and analysis of remotely sensed data to extract land-cover/ land-use and related information. However, such new developments come with their own set of challenges. This session will examine recent trends and new approaches to processing and analysis of remotely sensed big-data and provide an opportunity for presenters to share their experience in their development.