APEC Project Database

Project Title

Capacity Building on Using Remote Sensing Technologies for Monitoring the Environment among APEC Economies

Project Year

2021

Project Number

DESG 01 2021

Project Session

Session 1

Project Type

Standard

Project Status

Completed Project

Project No.

DESG 01 2021

Project Title

Capacity Building on Using Remote Sensing Technologies for Monitoring the Environment among APEC Economies

Project Status

Completed Project

Fund Account

General Project Account

Sub-fund

None

Project Year

2021

Project Session

Session 1

APEC Funding

17,700

Co-funding Amount

10,000

Total Project Value

27,700

Sponsoring Forum

Digital Economy Steering Group (DESG)

Topics

Digital Economy

Committee

Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI)

Other Fora Involved

Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TELWG)

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

Proposing Economy(ies)

Peru

Co-Sponsoring Economies

Australia; Canada; China; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Viet Nam

Expected Start Date

01/11/2021

Expected Completion Date

31/10/2022

Project Proponent Name 1

Lily Escobar (wef 16 June 2022)

Job Title 1

Coordinator of Institutional Relations

Organization 1

Peruvian Agency for Environmental Assessment andEnforcement (OEFA)

Telephone 1

(51-1) 2049900

Email 1

lescobar@oefa.gob.pe

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

Not Applicable

Email 2

Not Applicable

Declaration

Lily Escobar

Project Summary

COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that the use of digital technologies is indispensable to foster environmental conservation and sustainable development. Therefore, this project aims to encourage APEC members to:

i) make full use of technologies for environmental monitoring and enforcement.

ii) exchange information and technological expertise to increase the capability of APEC economies to monitor the environment through the use of remote sensing technologies, and analysis and interpretation of data derived from unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite sensors.

Two workshops will be carried out under this project:

1. Workshop on remote sensing and geo-spatial analysis tools for monitoring environmental impacts in mining, oil extraction, agriculture, fisheries, and industry.

2. Workshop and best practices on big data and artificial intelligence for environmental monitoring, decision making and early warning systems on changes in environmental quality and biodiversity.

Relevance

Relevance - Region: The year 2030 marks a milestone in the evolution of the global effort to steward the progress towards economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability. One of the most critical conditions for the fulfilment of the ambitions expressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the effective and efficient use of dynamic and disaggregated data for decision-making.

Most notably, the 2030 Agenda recognizes the value that geospatial information provides to enable informed, data-driven decision-making. Access for citizens and civil society to data about the environment is considered to be a crucial condition for civic engagement in and public deliberation on environmental policies. Information is an important political resource in the fight for a sustainable future.[1]

Some developing economies are undergoing rapid growth resulting in a wealth increasing. But, given this, also greater pollution is increasing the risks of unsustainable development. Developing best practices and technologies to acquire and process the information will have the potential to help reduce poverty, foster development, growth holds by preserving the environment. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has the potential to contribute to sustainability, while at the same time, being fundamental for facilitating information flows among different actors, for improving environment protection, for furthering the effectiveness of emergencies’ management, and for providing real-time decision support to speed-up and for increasing efficiency in environmental monitoring.

There are economies with a great development in remote monitoring (Australia, the United States, Chinese Taipei, China) while on the other hand there are economies that are just beginning to implement it. In order to reduce the knowledge gap and strengthen our ties and commitments with sustainable development, it is necessary to collect the experiences of the economies with more development in this technology, in order to avoid repeating those unsuccessful experiences and / or to collect the required key points to ensure success. The exchange of experiences between specialists will promote the generation of new research projects, promote the exchange of information and may be the beginning of a network of experts and / or entities in remote sensing among APEC member economies.

Finally, it is important to highlight that the correct implementation of environmental monitoring technologies allows the collection of data that contributes to improving the development and design of public policies that effectively reduce environmental pollution. Additionally, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, these digital technologies will help improve monitoring of economies by replacing on-site surveillance.

Relevance – Eligibility and Fund Priorities: The project seeks resources from the GPA fund. Given that the project considers the utilization of digital technologies, it is aligned with the following 2020-2021 APEC priorities: (i) Driving Innovative Sustainability; and (ii) Pursuing Innovation and a Digitally Enabled Recovery.

Relevance – Capacity Building: This project will actively develop economies’ capacity in remote sensing technologies for the evaluation and monitoring of environmental impacts of mining, oil or industrial pollution; and in big data, artificial intelligence for environmental monitoring, decision making and early warning systems on changes in environmental quality and biodiversity.

The intention of the project is to highlight how remote sensing technologies can be used in synergy with new information technologies and artificial intelligence. Since the processing and systematization of satellite images is a time-demanding task, it could be lightened by automating processes using artificial intelligence to capture and process satellite images (orthorectification and other similar processes). Likewise, with current developments in computing, data science, and artificial intelligence, predictive models can be generated in different areas.

[1] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/informationforintegrateddecision-making/geospatialinformation

Objectives

Our objective is to build the capacity of officials working on environmental conservation and sustainable development. The proposed workshop will allow participants to share their experiences and increase their understanding in evaluating remote sensing technologies and learn new methodologies for environmental monitoring in lieu of in-person checks, considering the current restrictions by COVID-19.

Alignment

Beneficiaries and Outputs

Outputs:

1. Pre-Workshop Research and Report:

Identification of the current level of adoption of the remote sensing technologies in some economies.

a. Method: survey prior to the workshops.

b. Target audience: ICTs and environmental regulatory agencies

c. Written output: report that will be shared in the workshop and will be included in the summary report

2. Workshops[1]

The project considers the organization of two (2) workshops lasting two (2) days (3 hours per day) each:

a) 1st virtual workshop: Workshop and best practices on remote sensing and geo-spatial analysis on tools for monitoring environmental impacts in mining, oil extraction, agriculture, fisheries, and industry (March 2022).

i) Objective: By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to promote the development of technological tools to monitor the environment permanently and massively, through the analysis of satellite images and the systematization of the analysis data and measurements committed in various instruments of an environmental nature.

ii) Session plans: Speakers will encourage active participation by the audience through constructive problem-solving for recommendations that can be implemented in the participants’ home economies.

iii) Target audience: Public Officials related to ICTs and environmental regulatory agencies . In particular, participants should have basic knowledge in space remote sensing and drone management.

iv) Discussion topics: (i) Advanced monitoring, including the use of remote sensing in real time (IoT) and analysis of satellite images; (ii) Electronic reporting, to privilege the digitization of procedures and facilitate the capture and processing of data; (iii) Transparency of information, to facilitate access to citizens and generate a dissuasive effect on the behavior of the regulated community; (iv) Innovation applied to control and sanction cases, incorporating remote monitoring technologies and data analysis in specific cases; (v) Inspire the regulatory design and delivery of environmental permits, incorporating the use of technologies, particularly remote monitoring.

b) 2nd virtual workshop: Workshop and best practices on big data and artificial intelligence for environmental monitoring, decision making and early warning systems on changes in environmental quality and biodiversity. (April 2022)

i) Objective: But the end of this workshop, participants will be able to develop and apply algorithm combination methodologies that allow early detection capabilities and required actions of changes in the quality of the environment or pollution events of environmental components from the information collected in environmental monitoring and surveillance activities.

ii) Session plans: Speakers will encourage active participation by the audience through constructive problem-solving for recommendations that can be implemented in the participants’ home economies.

iii) Target audience: Public Officials related to ICTs and environmental regulatory agencies. In particular, participants should have basic knowledge in statistics, and programming language.

iv) Discussion topics: i) Introduction to Big Data and Artificial Intelligence; ii) Programs used for big data and artificial intelligence (Language R, Python, Julia); iii) Identification of techniques for the analysis and massive treatment of data on environmental quality and biodiversity; iv) Difference between graphic models and network models; Big Data to predict the probability with which an environmental alert can occur; v) Big data for environmental enforcement; vi) Artificial Neural Networks oriented to environmental quality and biodiversity; vii) Convolutional Neural Networks: Provide the fundamentals of convolutional neural networks, convolutional layers, image classification, prediction improvement techniques, and network overfit prevention; viii) Autoencoders: Provide the fundamentals of autoencoders, hidden layers overcompleted, autoencoder training, use of autoencoders for anomalous detections; ix) Graph analysis: Provide the necessary tools for graph analysis in social networks; x) Nomenclature and graph metrics, calculate graph metrics; among others.

3. Summary Report (APEC Report on new technologies for environmental monitoring elaboration)

This document will compile session objectives, session activities, executive summary of the presentations, key discussions topics and attendance. All presentations slides will also be included as addendum. The Summary Report will be submitted first to the Secretariat for review and approval and published on the APEC website, after being endorsed by DESG.

Table of contents:

1. General Information / Background

2. Pre-Workshop Research and Report

3. Workshop Description: session objectives, session activities, executive summary of the presentations, key discussions topics and attendance.

4. Workshop Analysis

5. Set of Voluntary Recommendations

It is expected that the Summary Report, to have approximately 30 pages, will be an APEC publication and will be submitted to the Secretariat for review and approval no later than 1 August 2022.

Outcomes:

1. Identification of the current level of adoption of the remote sensing technologies in some economies.

2. Increase in awareness, understanding and buy-in of the remote sensing technologies and geo-spatial analysis on tools for monitoring environmental impacts.

3. Raise awareness on the benefits of using new remote sensing technologies to foster environmental conservation.

Beneficiaries: The beneficiaries of this project will be:

1. Primary: Officials related to ICTs and environmental regulatory agencies, professionals with basic knowledge in space remote sensing and drone management. Also, professionals with basic knowledge in statistics and programming language.

Secondary: policymakers, senior officials of public sector entities responsible for designing and implementing environmental and social assessment with knowledge of artificial intelligence and technology applicable to remote monitoring.

[1] The workshops will be recorded only for note-taking purposes. It is not intended to upload or share the video in any platform.

Dissemination

1. Pre-Workshop Research and Report (will be included in the summary report).

2. Summary Report (APEC Report on new technologies for environmental monitoring elaboration

i. Target audience for the publication: Public Officers related to ICTs and environmental regulatory agencie

ii. The Summary Report will be submitted first to the Secretariat for review and approval and published on the APEC website, after being endorsed by DESG.

iii. There is no intent to obtain a monetary benefit from the Summary Report

iv. Platform to be used for dissemination: The Summary report will be an APEC publication available on the APEC website. It is expected that the number of pages will be no longer than 30 pages

v. Other possible channels of distribution in addition to APEC platforms: economies’ websites.

Gender

The project will promote i) skills, capacity building and health; ii) leadership, voice and agency; iii) innovation and technology; which are pillars of women’s economic empowerment.

The PO is aiming for at least 50% representation by women as speakers and 50% by women participants. Invitations sent to DESG and CTI representatives will promote gender balance by encouraging the nomination of female speakers and participants.

It is worth mentioning that since 2017 the Peruvian Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA) has a Gender Equality Committee, which aims to reduce the gender gap and promote equality in our institution.

The PO will also discuss the digital gender divide particularly on remote sensing technologies in the project event

Targets
Female Participants (%) at the workshop	50%
Female Speakers/Experts (%) at the workshop	50%

Referring to the Guide on Gender Criteria for APEC Project Proposals in the Guidebook on APEC Projects, please tick the pillar or pillars that this project supports, in promoting women’s economic empowerment:

	5 Pillars (you may tick more than one)
1	Access to Capital and Assets
2	Access to Markets
3	Skills, Capacity Building, and Health	X
4	Leadership, Voice and Agency	X
5	Innovation and Technology	X

PO is committed to collect sex-disaggregated data for all participants from the project. This data will be included as part of the submission of the Completion Report to the Secretariat when the project completes and will serve to guide future POs on their own gender parity targets.

Work Plan

Time	Tasks	Deliverables
November 2021	Elaboration of the Project Proposal by the Project Overseer	Submission of Project Proposal for approval of DESG and BMC
November 2021	Bidding process of the consultant that will give support to the project	Contract signed
November 2021	Establishment and operation of workshops organization committee & preparation of the workshops	In coordination with the PO, the following will be organized: 1. Workshops schedule 2. Workshop Agenda 3. List of speakers 4. Attendance list
December 2021	Pre-Workshop Research and Report	Information/identification
		Survey elabotation / circulation
		Gathering economies information
		Report
January 2022	General Information Circular	GIC
March 2022	Ex ante evaluation	evaluation
March 2022	Holding 1^st virtual workshop: Workshop and best practices on remote sensing and geo-spatial analysis	Virtual workshop Attendance list Presentations Ex-ante and ex-post Surveys
March 2022	Ex post evaluation	Evaluation results
April 2022	Ex ante evaluation	evaluation
April 2022	Holding 2^nd virtual workshop: Workshop and best practices on big data and artificial intelligence for environmental monitoring and decision making./ predictive and early warning systems on changes in environmental quality and biodiversity	Virtual workshop Attendance list Presentations Ex-ante and ex-post Surveys
April 2022	Ex post evaluation	Evaluation results
1 April 2022	Submit the APEC Project Monitoring Report (MR)	APEC Project Monitoring Report (MR)
April – July 2022	Summary report compiling	APEC Report on new technologies for environmental monitoring elaboration
1 August 2022	Summary report submitted to the Secretariat for review, approval and publication at the APEC website	Summary Report
October 2022	Project Completion Date (PCD)
December 2022	Drafting, submission and endorsement of the Completions Report and all supporting documents to the Secretariat	Completion Report
June 2023	Long Term Evaluation of APEC Projects	Long Term Evaluation of APEC Projects

Risks

Risk 1: Speakers / participants are not contacted.

Risk management: Make contact with every economy, especially the co-sponsoring to gain their support and effective reply, given that it is expected that economies will share and exchange experiences.

Risk 2: There is no active participation in the meetings.

Risk management: Promote team interactions to stimulate creative thinking and active participation.

Risk 3: Delay on the part of the consultant to carry out the deliverables.

Risk management: P.O will constantly monitor the consultant's work.

Risk 4: There is a risk of low quality of key output (Summary Report) along with the delay in the delivery of the tasks by the consultant.

Risk management: P.O will constantly monitor the consultant's work.

Risk 5: Low participation rate

Risk management: Given the innovative theme in APEC, it is expected to bring together more participants. Likewise, by having 6 co-sponsors we will commit their active participation.

Risk 6: risk of ‘Economies not applying knowledge learned or adopting recommendations from the project.

Risk management: The summary report will allow economies to review the recommendations with greater attention. Although they are not always fully implemented, they can serve as a basis for improvements.

Monitoring and Evaluation

	Evaluation Focus	Indicators	Target Goals	Evaluation Method	Reporting
Out-puts	1. Pre-Workshop Research and Report	Contracted executed	October 2021	certification by PO	Contract
	1. Pre-Workshop Research and Report	· Survey	50% of economies will answer the survey	Survey results	Completion report
	2.1st virtual Workshop on remote sensing and geo-spatial analysis.	· Number of economies that participated in the online meeting.	10 economies	Attendance list	Completion Report
		· % of participating men/women	50/50	Attendance list	Completion Report
	3.2nd virtual Workshop on big data and artificial intelligence for environmental monitoring and decision making./ predictive and early warning systems on changes in environmental quality and biodiversity	· Number of economies that participated in the online meeting.	10 economies	Attendance list	Completion Report
		· % of participating men/women	50/50	Attendance list	Completion Report
	4.SUMMARY REPORT (APEC Report on new technologies for environmental monitoring elaboration)	Number of pages	30 pages	certification of the PO	Email to the Secretariat
Out-comes	1.Identification of the current level of adoption of the remote sensing technologies in home economies	Number of identified economies	8 economies	certification of the PO	Report
	2. Increase in awareness, understanding and buy-in of the remote sensing technologies and geo-spatial analysis on tools for monitoring environmental impacts	% of participants report substantial knowledge increase	70%	Ex-ante and ex-post evaluations	Completion Report
	3.Raise awareness on the benefits of using new remote sensing technologies to foster environmental conservation.	Number of economies that include new remote sensing technologies	economies interested in continuing to develop the topic	Tracking economies six months after event with surveys	Completion Report

Linkages

ENGAGEMENT (Outside APEC). The Report will be shared among the following networks:

a) The ‘Remote Sensing Conservation network’ (CRSnet) aims at increasing conservation effectiveness through enhanced integration of remote sensing technologies in research and applications.

b) Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEOBON)

c) Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON),

d) Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research, NCU

e) Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS) is an Asian non-governmental organization dedicated to promote Remote Sensing through exchange of information, mutual cooperation and international understanding and goodwill amongst the member economies of Asia-Pacific Region.

f) SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing is where agency, industry, and academic leaders from around the world present recent developments in remote sensing technologies, atmospheric monitoring applications, and earth observing systems.

ENGAGEMENT (within APEC)

a) TELWG and PPSTI will be invited to participate in the workshops promoting cross for a collaboration. Also, the results of the project will be profited not only among members of the Digital Economy Steering Group, but also by other APEC groups related to the topics of the study,

b) DIGITAL ECONOMY: The Report will contribute with AIDER’s key focus area: “Promoting innovation and adoption of enabling technologies and services[1]”.

PREVIOUS APEC’s WORK

GROUP ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The APEC High-Level Meeting on Sustainable Development was held in Santiago, Chile on 20-21 July 2006. The conclusions and recommendations of the meeting included:

1. To encourage APEC Working Groups to coordinate their work on sustainable development through the exchange of information and ongoing cooperation between and among APEC economies.

2. To improve the exchange of information between APEC and other international organizations, such as UN-CSD, WTO, OECD, and the World Bank

3. To consider civil society participation and dialogue in future work on sustainable development.

[1] Promoting innovation and adoption of enabling technologies and services: The development of the digital infrastructure, including the Fourth Industrial Revolution opens new opportunities and brings new challenges for regulators and businesses, transforming traditional approaches to regulatory and business cooperation in APEC. Due to the changing circumstances, public and private sectors should share best practices on the business transformation, paying particular attention to trade and services in the Internet and Digital Economy. Digital technologies, services and platforms can provide governments with the flexible and efficient solutions for empowering future development. Effective measures should be encouraged to facilitate research and development as well as investment in innovative digital technologies. Economies should take advantage of enabling digital technologies and the internet to promote innovation in products, services, processes, organizations and business models. Economies also need to improve the business environment through implementing policy frameworks that promote innovation in the Internet and Digital Economy.

Sustainability

Ex-post survey questionnaires will invite participants to provide feedback, including on possible future activities that could be developed under the framework of APEC or other fora.

The APEC Report on new technologies for environmental monitoring will be disseminated among International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) and regional networks as the Latin American Network for Environmental Enforcement and Compliance (RedLafica); and the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network.

Direct Labour

The main duties of the contractor include the following:

The direct contract is expected as contract value is not exceeding 20,000 USD.. The contractor should have expertise in logistical matters, with experience in organizing environmental events, as well as compiling information for publications. Desirable with experience in environmental enforcement agencies.

The summary report will be presented in a level of English fit for publication and require no further copy-editing by the APEC Secretariat:

No.	Scope of work	No. of Hours	Hourly Rate	Total Amount (US$)
1.	Identifying and contacting venues / vendors with adequate equipment and internet bandwidth and to finalize agreement	10	20	200
2.	Drafting General Information	25	20	500
3.	Identify and contacting Speakers for their availability and Creating Invitation for Government Officials and confirming their attendance	30	20	600
4.	Pre-Workshop Research and Report.	25	80	2,000
5.	circulate survey among economies and collect the answers. Prepare a report that summarizes the results.	30	80	2,400
6.	Holding 1^st and 2^nd workshop (logistical matters, compiling presentations, attendance list, among others)	30	80	2,400
7.	SUMMARY REPORT (APEC Report on new technolgies for environmental monitoring elaboration)	80	80	6,400
Total		230		14,500

Are there any supporting document attached?

Project No.
Project Title
Project Status
Fund Account
Sub-fund
Project Year
Project Session
APEC Funding
Co-funding Amount
Total Project Value
Sponsoring Forum
Topics
Committee
Other Fora Involved
Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved
Proposing Economy(ies)
Co-Sponsoring Economies
Expected Start Date
Expected Completion Date
Project Proponent Name 1
Job Title 1
Organization 1
Telephone 1
Email 1
Project Proponent Name 2
Job Title 2
Organization 2
Telephone 2
Email 2
Declaration
Project Summary
Relevance
Objectives
Alignment
Beneficiaries and Outputs
Dissemination
Gender
Work Plan
Risks
Monitoring and Evaluation
Linkages
Sustainability
Direct Labour
Are there any supporting document attached?
hdFldAdmin
Project Number
Previous Fora
Secretariat Comments
Reprogramming Notes
Consolidated QAF
Endorsement By Fora
PD Sign Off
Batch
Forum Priority
Committee Ranking Category
Committee Priority
PDM Priority
Priority Within Funding Category
Monitoring Report Received
Completion Report Received
PMU Field 1
PMU Field 2
PMU Field 3
On Behalf Of
Proposal Status
Originating Sub-Forum
Approval Status
Attachments

Content Type: Standard Proposal