Geospatial Analytics for Enhanced Supply Chain Sustainability: Introducing the SCo2-API Framework

This session delves into the evolving landscape of climate regulations and voluntary commitments facing supply chains, with a specific focus on land-based supply chains such as agriculture and forestry. Recognizing the pivotal role of the first mile in contributing over 50% of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental externalities, the discussion centers on addressing the challenges posed by scope 3 emissions and the distributed responsibility inherent in the supply chain.

Epoch introduces the SCo2-API, a comprehensive web application leveraging Google Earth Engine and Google Cloud. This platform facilitates the management of geospatial assets within the supply chain, encompassing plot data, agricultural practices, supply shed, and payment details. The SCo2-API further provides API endpoints to derive on-demand, spatio-temporally relevant sustainability metrics.

The presented metrics include deforestation monitoring for compliance with European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Land Use Change (LUC), and Land Management (non-LUC) emissions estimates. These metrics serve to identify intervention hotspots and monitor environmental co-benefits such as carbon removals, water use, and biodiversity resulting from landscape restoration interventions.

Additionally, the SCo2-API incorporates advanced capabilities such as automated sampling design and minimum sampling density requirements for field data collection. These features are crucial for validating and enhancing confidence in the sustainability metrics generated. The framework also integrates payment capabilities to support Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes based on validated sustainability metrics.

Algorithmically, the SCo2-API ensures near-real-time results through a suite of scientific workflows. These include time series change detection using the Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) algorithm (Zhu et al., 2014), machine learning models predicting above-ground biomass and canopy heights using GEDI and ICESat data, canopy height heterogeneity as a proxy for landscape diversity (Rocchini et al., 2018), and evapotranspiration modeling as a proxy for water use (Melton et al., 2022). All scientific workflows are based on open datasets and satellite collections, aligning with open-source principles to ensure reproducibility and auditability of generated figures.

This session aims to explore the scientific and technological dimensions of the SCo2-API framework, providing insights into its applications for advancing supply chain sustainability and meeting regulatory and voluntary commitments.