Quick: what’s a vegetation index? 🌱 1. The number of vegetables you plan...

NASA Climate Change 3 years ago

Quick: what’s a vegetation index? 🌱 1. The number of vegetables you plan to eat on Thanksgiving 2. A measure of the health and vigor of plants and crops  Drop your guesses below!  This enhanced vegetation index was made with data from NASA’s Aqua satellite. NASA satellites have a unique view of our favorite fruits and veggies from space, and the data they collect help us understand how climate conditions impact crop health around the globe. We’re thankful for the harvests that bring food to our tables – and also for our Earth-observing satellites that help us monitor those crops from space! Happy #Thanksgiving 🛰 Video Description: A time-lapse animation over the eastern United States, Central America, and northwestern South America from April through October 2023. The image shows shades of green and tan, with areas of green becoming darker and expanding southward as the growing season progresses. By mid-summer, most of the image is dark green. During the autumn months, northern parts of the U.S. shift from green to brown as leafy growth slows down.  Central America and South America remain green throughout the whole animation, due to their tropical climate. These colors are not what the eye would see, rather the darker green shades indicate a higher level of vegetation vigor and health. These images are a NASA satellite product called the “enhanced vegetation index.”  #Climate #NASA #Aqua #ClimateChange #Earth #vegetationindex #EarthScience #ClimateData #EarthData #crops

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 5 hours ago



A £400m UK government loan to the Tropical Forests Forever Facility tightens the link between embodied carbon and real forest outcomes. Bio‑based and renewable building materials will now be judged on credible, deforestation‑free supply chains as much as on glossy lifecycle assessment or whole life carbon assessment outputs, driving wider use of environmental product declarations (EPDs), green building materials and green building products. Expect stronger traceability, circular construction strategies and end‑of‑life reuse in construction when specifying low embodied carbon materials and low carbon construction materials to cut the carbon footprint of construction and support the circular economy in construction.

Updated damp and mould guidance from the Chartered Institute of Building and the Chartered Institute of Housing reframes indoor environmental quality as a health obligation, pressing social landlords towards whole‑house ventilation, insulation upgrades and continuous monitoring. The shift embeds sustainable building design and energy‑efficient buildings as compliance issues, with implications for life cycle cost, building lifecycle performance and net zero whole life carbon pathways recognised by BREEAM and BREEAM v7.

A new retrofit procurement guide uses public spending to expand capacity, create local jobs and tackle skills shortages by baking training and labour targets into contracts. This gives sustainable construction and decarbonising the built environment delivery teeth, promoting life cycle thinking in construction, resource efficiency in construction and eco‑design for buildings, alongside sustainable material specification and low carbon building upgrades that support carbon neutral construction.

Escalating climate risks—from European wildfires to transboundary smoke and cascading Himalayan floods—are accelerating environmental sustainability in construction and sustainable urban development. Design for resilience is becoming core to net zero carbon buildings and green construction, with fire‑hardening, smoke filtration, heat‑safe interiors and green infrastructure specified to reduce the environmental impact of construction, deliver carbon footprint reduction over whole life carbon and strengthen eco‑friendly construction and sustainable architecture.

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