Documentation

SEPAL (System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring) is an open-source project and platform empowering people around the world to gain a better understanding of land cover dynamics by facilitating the efficient access and use of Earth observation data – without the need of coding knowledge.

Learn how to use the platform with SEPAL documentation

The SEPAL team developed this GitHub page to help users get the most out of the interface.

Getting started

Register to SEPAL

Set up your SEPAL account and request additional resources.

Connect to GEE

Register with Google Earth Engine (GEE) and connect your account to SEPAL.

Connect to NICFI PlanetLab imagery

Sign up to use Norway’s International Climate and Forests Initiative (NICFI) – PlanetLab data and connect your account to GEE.

Recipes and modules

Start a recipe.

Run analysis with recipes, the foundation of SEPAL processes.

Start a module.

Run integrated workflows with modules – no need of coding experience required.

Use the se.plan module.

Compute your restoration index with se.plan, a spatially explicit online tool designed to support forest restoration planning decisions by restoration stakeholders.

Other resources

SEPAL website

Discover the impact of the project.

SEPAL platform

Learn more about the interface.

Open Foris

Browse the Suite of Tools.

SEPAL is always improving.

Encounter a problem? See an issue? Need help? Take one of the following actions to help our team members enhance user experience by improving the platform and its documentation.

For general support, ask the Google Group community.

For documentation improvement, use the GitHub Issue Tracker.

For usage questions, ask the GIS StackExchange community.

For training, register for an online facilitated course from the FAO elearning Academy.

About the platform

SEPAL is part of the Open Foris Suite of Tools. The platform allows users to query and process satellite data quickly and efficiently, tailor their products for local needs, and produce sophisticated and relevant geospatial analyses. Harnessing cloud-based supercomputers and modern geospatial data infrastructures (e.g. GEE), the interface enables access and processing of historical satellite data as well as newer data from Landsat and higher-resolution data from Europe’s Copernicus program.

SEPAL is a cloud computing-based platform for autonomous land monitoring using remotely sensed data. It is a combination of GEE and open-source software such as GDAL, Jupyter, the Open Foris Geospatial Toolkit, ORFEO Toolbox, Python, R, R Shiny Server, R Studio Server, and SNAP Toolkit. The platform allows users to access powerful cloud-computing resources to query, access and process satellite data quickly and efficiently for creating advanced analyses.

Supporting institutions

SEPAL is a project funded by the Government of Norway from the Forestry Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).