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

NASA Climate Change 2 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 17 minutes ago



Regulatory momentum across the built environment is tightening as governments and industry bodies align around robust frameworks for decarbonising construction. The EU’s reform of carbon market controls aims to maintain strong carbon price signals to advance whole life carbon reduction, while ISO’s new standard on net‑zero transition plans gives investors and contractors a consistent structure for measuring life cycle cost and performance. The Science Based Targets initiative is establishing clearer boundaries between verifiable net zero carbon buildings and unsubstantiated claims, driving greater transparency in embodied carbon reporting and lifecycle assessment within construction supply chains.

Engineering progress is translating policy ambition into practice. Plans for a large‑scale direct air capture plant on Teesside highlight a new model of carbon neutral construction industry in the UK, pairing heavy engineering expertise with circular economy principles. Expansion of natural fibre insulation and low embodied carbon materials into mainstream housing retrofits demonstrates eco‑design for buildings moving beyond pilot projects. Sustainable construction now depends on accurate whole life carbon assessment and the specification of renewable building materials validated through environmental product declarations (EPDs).

Climate resilience is reshaping valuation and insurance models as climate‑driven subsidence data sharpen awareness of the environmental impact of construction. Developers are applying sustainable building design and low carbon design strategies to manage soil instability and resource efficiency in construction projects. The focus on whole life carbon and embodied carbon in materials signals a maturing market where green construction and sustainable building practices are metrics of competitiveness, not aspiration. Standards such as BREEAM v7 reinforce this shift toward lifecycle performance, end‑of‑life reuse in construction and circular construction strategies that define the next phase of environmental sustainability in construction.

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