© GEO Secretariat

Building GEOSS: A Global Earth Observations System of Systems to Inform Decisions and Actions

João SOARESTechnical Officer GEOSECCapacity Building and Agriculture

© GEO Secretariat

Environmental Challengesfor the 21rst Century

The origins of GEO...

• Johannesburg WSSD 2002 called for a strengthened cooperation and coordination among Global Observations Systems and research programs for integrated global observations

• G8 held in Evian that called for strengthened international cooperation on global observation for the environment

© GEO Secretariat

© GEO Secretariat

U.S. Department of State, Washington DCJuly 31, 2003

GEO, the Group on Earth ObservationsAn Intergovernmental Organization with 87 Members

and 61 Participating Organizations

© GEO Secretariat

The Vision for GEOSS…

…a world where decisions and actions are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations.

© GEO Secretariat

© GEO Secretariat

IKONOS

QuickBird

SPIN-2SPOT 4, 5

EROS A1

EnvisatAura/Aqua/Terra

Grace

QuikScatSage

SeaWindsTRMM

Toms-EP

UARSLandsat 7

SORCE

ACRIMSAT

CBERS

SeaWiFS

ERBS

Jason

Orbview 2, 3

Radarsat ALOS

DMC

The Tower of Babel

GEOSS

Human capitalExperience + qualification

Informal + formalDevelop talents

Deliverables Information for supporting decision-making

Instutional system

Networkinggovernance

Political commitment tosustained data

sharing

InfrastructureSpatial + in situ instrumentation

Architecture + Data management + Data portalsSoftware + tools

www.earthobservations.org

GEOSS 10-year implementation plan

© GEO Secretariat

© GEO Secretariat

Access to Data and Information

Contributors register observation systems, data sets and services

Users discover

and exploit resources

contributed to GEOSS

© GEO Secretariat

• Data and Products at Minimum Time delay and Minimum Cost

• Free of Charge or minimal Cost for Research and Education

GEO Data Sharing Principles

• Full and Open Exchange of Data, recognizing Relevant International Instruments and National Policies

© GEO Secretariat

Free and Open Access to Satellite Images: CBERS (China/Brazil), LANDSAT

(USA) - data use increased by 50 X

© GEO Secretariat

GMES Sentinels Data Access Policy?

© GEO Secretariat

Monitoring Water Availability

© GEO Secretariat

Monitoring Water from Space

DS = P - E - R - W

DS = Change in water storageP = PrecipitationE = Evapo-transpirationR = RunoffW = Withdrawal

© GEO Secretariat

Red indicates area where NRT products are currently generated

Blue indicates area where products may be generated in the future.

Altimetry over Lakes and Rivers

© GEO Secretariat

Global Rainfall Map

produced 4 hours after observation and

updated every hour and accessible on internet as google files

Global Rainfall Maps from Satellites

© GEO Secretariat

Soil moisture

Soil moisture from ERS scatterometer Soil moisture from SMOS

© GEO Secretariat

© GEO Secretariat

The Geohazard Supersites provide a portal for optimizing the data acquisition strategy and sharing of preliminary information amongst scientists.

The Haiti Supersite

© GEO Secretariat

Civil Protection Agencies risk scenarios and consequent Emergency Plans

Urban planners responsible for land use planning in risk prone areas.

Supersites End-users

“Port-au-Prince may face another devastating earthquake within the next one or two decades. This risk needs to be considered when deciding where and how to rebuild”.

Geohasards analysis of the supersite data

© GEO Secretariat

• 15 to 20% of global carbon emissions are thought to arise from tropical deforestation

• Reduced deforestation and increased reforestation is a rapid response mechanism for reducing emissions

• Significant environmental, social and economic benefits besides the climate benefit (biodiversity, ecosystem services,…)

Forest Carbon

© GEO Secretariat

The Global Forest Observations Initiative

Provide reliable information of suitable consistency, accuracy and continuity to support forest carbon Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)

© GEO Secretariat

Thank you!