We are all familiar with the 17 colourful tiles of the UN 2030 Agenda. The Global Goals for Sustainable Development give countries the opportunity to monitor and report on the related indicators at the global level. They also help to compare the development and transformative change of different countries. Earth observation and geospatial data play a crucial role in reporting at local to global levels. However, the data situation is often different and needs to be adapted to the respective scales.

In the seminar "SDG monitoring in Ecuador and Germany with remote sensing and GIS data and methods", students from the GI and the Universidad del Azuay (UDA) in Cuenca, Ecuador, developed research methods for measuring and quantifying SDG indicators in both countries. SDG monitoring was carried out at national level for Ecuador and Germany using concrete examples and discussed in exchange with German and Ecuadorian students and researchers. At the end of the seminar, opportunities and challenges for global monitoring became clear, new methods of remote sensing and GIS were learned in an interdisciplinary context and the understanding of complex coupled socio-ecological systems for the implementation of national decisions was deepened. In particular, the international exchange and cooperation in the English-language virtual exchange seminar was emphasised and brought a very extensive exchange of experiences across different continents and time zones for students on both sides.

The seminar was led by Jun. Prof. Dr. Andreas Rienow and Dr. Valerie Graw on the GI side and Dr. Daniela Ballari on the Ecuadorian side. RUB Geomatics has been collaborating with the UDA since 2020. Since the seminar enthused students and teachers alike, this will certainly not be the last seminar in this exchange. Definitely an example where the new virtual possibilities can continue to make a great contribution.