1. © GEO Secretariat The Build-up of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems: an opportunity for Africa Giovanni Rum GEO Secretariat 7th International AARSE Conference Accra, Ghana October 2008

2. © GEO Secretariat Our Planet is a System of Systems

3. © GEO Secretariat Mankind has become a Geological Parameter Geology has become a Political Issue (Decisions must be informed)

4. © GEO Secretariat Any Single Problem Requires Many Data Sets Any Single Data Set Serves Many Applications

5. © GEO Secretariat Forest Monitoring Agriculture Biodiversity Disasters Energy Climate Ecosystems Water

6. © GEO Secretariat Continental Water Cycle Management AgricultureDisasters Energy Climate Health

7. © GEO Secretariat GEO today The Group on Earth Observations, was established in 2005, with a major objective: to establish a coordinated and sustained Global Earth Observation System of Systems – GEOSS. It is an Intergovernmental Organization and today has 75 Members (74 Countries and the European Commission) & 51 Participating Organizations, including: UN Organizations and Programs, such as FAO, IOC, ISDR, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFCCC, UNITAR/UNOSAT, UNOOSA,WMO other leading international Organizations in different domains, such as CEOS, ESA, EUMETSAT, FDSN, IAG, ICSU, OGC

8. © GEO Secretariat

9. 1. Reduction and Prevention of Disasters 2. Human Health and Epidemiology 3. Energy Management 4. Climate Variability & Change 5. Water Management 6. Weather Forecasting 7. Ecosystems 8. Agriculture 9. Biodiversity GEOSS addresses Nine Societal Benefit Areas

10. © GEO Secretariat Cape Town Summit November 2007 Declaration Noted with satisfaction the progress made, as documented in the Report on Progress and in its Annex Early Achievements Reaffirmed a strong commitment to GEOSS implementation and sustained operations Resolved to meet before the end of 2010

11. © GEO Secretariat Environment and Climate Change To respond to the growing demand for Earth observation data, we will accelerate efforts within the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), which builds on the work of UN specialized agencies and programs, in priority areas, inter alia, climate change and water resources management, by strengthening observation, prediction and data sharing. We also support capacity building for developing countries in earth observations and promote interoperability and linkage with other partners.

12. © GEO Secretariat Addressing needs of USERS IGOS-Themes in GEO Ocean Coastal Water Cryosphere Land GeoHazards Atmosphere Carbon

13. © GEO Secretariat Coordinate and Sustain Observing Systems Ensure Access for All Make Basic Data Sets Available Develop End-to-end Services

14. © GEO Secretariat An integrated approach to building capacity. An approach based in three complementary and needed elements: Individuals (Human) CB:Individuals (Human) CB: education and training of individuals to be aware of, access, use and develop EO… Infrastructure CB:Infrastructure CB: HW, SW and other technology required to develop, access and use EO… Institutional CB:Institutional CB: building policies, programs & organizational structures in governments and organizations to enhance the understanding of the value of EO… …data and products. I³I³

15. © GEO Secretariat Need for an Interoperable Architecture and Standard Interoperable Formats to benefit fully from Earth Observation Systems The Tower of Babel

16. © GEO Secretariat IKONOS QuickBird SPIN-2 SPOT 4, 5 EROS A1 Envisat Aura/Aqua/Terra Grace QuikScat Sage SeaWinds TRMM Toms-EP UARS Landsat 7 SORCE ACRIMSAT CBERS SeaWiFS ERBS Jason Orbview 2, 3 RadarsatALOS DMC

17. © GEO Secretariat ARGO: Cooperation of 23 Countries

18. © GEO Secretariat CBERS Data acquisition Stations

19. © GEO Secretariat CBERS Data to Africa and Caribbean will be Available Free of Charge Data Reception and Image Processing in Africa –Southern Africa – SAC (South Africa) –North and Western Africa - Maspalomas (Spain) –Possibly North & Eastern Africa – Malindi (Italy/Kenya) Products Distribution to Users –GEOPortal –GEONETCast From Satellite to End-Users

20. © GEO Secretariat 90 m30 m Comparison courtesy of V. Gorokhovich, CIESIN A global DEM at 30 meter resolution derived from ASTER data, by US and Japan, by end of 2008

21. © GEO Secretariat Data and Products at Minimum Time delay and Minimum Cost Free of Charge or Cost of Reproduction for Research and Education GEO Data Sharing Principles Full and Open Exchange of Data … Recognizing Relevant International Instruments and National Policies and Legislation

22. © GEO Secretariat Data Sharing principles 1.An action is in place to support the above objective. 2.A White Paper has been produced and is now undergoing the review of the GEO Partnership. 3.The objective for this year is to consolidate and agree the guidelines for the implementation of the Data Sharing principles and to have them endorsed, together with the associated plan of actions for implementation, by GEO Plenary V- November 2008 in China. We support the establishment of a process with the objective to reach a consensus on the implementation of the Data Sharing Principles for GEOSS to be presented to the next GEO Ministerial Summit. The success of GEOSS will depend on a commitment by all GEO partners to work together to ensure timely, global and open access to data and products

23. © GEO Secretariat GEONETCast A Space-based Dissemination System for Data, Products, Services and Early Warning ROSHYDROMET Contributors EUMETSAT CMA Global Coverage NOAA

24. © GEO Secretariat GEONETCast Receiving Stations - Dedicated personal computer (~ $1000) Data analysis and processing should be done on separate computer(s) - Satellite antenna dish (1-3 m) (~ $300-1200) - DTH receiver card or box (~ $200)

25. © GEO Secretariat The regional / subregional approach Many on going African Developments AMESD, TIGER have retained this approach GEOSS will continue along these lines The approach is expected to have positive effects at Country level, through the development of coordination mechanisms among the Institutions involved in the different GEO Societal Benefit Areas and the progressive building of national capabilities

26. © GEO Secretariat International Charter on Space and Major Disasters Charter accepted concept of granting direct access to GEO Members (end of May) Charter was activated for GEO Member Ukraine floods through the intervention of GEO upon request of support from Ministry of Environment (31 July request - activation 1 August)

27. © GEO Secretariat International Charter on Space and Major Disasters Discussion is ongoing to consolidate framework for allowing practical implementation of concept. For Countries not having yet the infrastructure and capabilities to deal directly with the Charter, the identification of sub-regional centres is considered as probably the best short term solution, having as the final objective to continue to build Capacity in each Country. Each Center could be identified building on exiting capabilities and would serve a certain number of Countries

28. © GEO Secretariat GEONETCast Global Dissemination System to disseminate and provide easy access to space-based, air-borne and in situ data, metadata and products to Users from all Societal Benefit Areas. Low cost, easy to operate user terminals

29. © GEO Secretariat GEONETCast African Users requests coordination is essential for full use of the system

30. © GEO Secretariat The GEO Portal

31. © GEO Secretariat GEOSS Component Registry Service Registry GEOSS Standards Registry Special Arrangements Registry references GEO Portal links GEOSS Clearinghouse Catalogues Services User accesses Links to Other Community Resources searches GEOSS Common Infrastructure GEONETCast Websites/ Webportals Catalogue Registered componentsExternal Resources Websites/ Webportals GEO Secretariat Web Site links Accesses all Registered Community Resources Register Documents RSS Catalog Query Clients

32. © GEO Secretariat GEO Portal Implementation: Initial steps

33. © GEO Secretariat

34. Three prototype Portals Compusulthttp://www.geowebportal. org/web/guest/home ESA - FAOhttp://www.geoportal.org/ ESRIhttp://keel.esri.com/Portal/

35. © GEO Secretariat Develop End-to-end Services

36. © GEO Secretariat Wildland Fire Early Warning 1. Collect noon weather observations from WMO centres 2. Transfer data 3. Extract and decode weather data; interpolate conditions to build grid layers in a GIS; produce daily early warning maps Typical data flow 4. Map products displaying current fire danger are distributed via WWW

37. © GEO Secretariat The WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning System A Global Partnership in Prediction and Analysis Building Links to Users Eleven Institutions With SDS Forecasts Available on the Internet: Three Major Nodes In the System dust

38. © GEO Secretariat MERIT Meningitis Environmental Risk Information Technologies Plan WHO Meningitis Vaccination Campaigns

39. © GEO Secretariat 0 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 29 5 5 12 19 26 2 2 9 9 16 23 2 2 9 9 16 23 30 6 6 13 20 27 4 4 11 18 25 Date Cases Without vaccination Actual Vaccination with WHO guidelines not preventable JanuaryDec. February MarchAprilMay Epidemic in Ghana, 1997- Wood et al., Lancet 2000 Vaccination starts Meningitis : The problem to be tackled

40. © GEO Secretariat African Protected areas monitoring a dynamic system which integrates heterogeneous data (geospatial, statistical, observations) to develop composite indicators of vulnerability (http://www- tem.jrc.it/PA/index.html).http://www- tem.jrc.it/PA/index.html

41. © GEO Secretariat Permanent geostationary optical mission for operational delivery of ~20m resolution images Africa total coverage every 4 days, land and coastal areas with an imaging capability from 5 to 8 million km²/day, by scenes of 300*300 km Flexible programming Fast access and permanent monitoring of crisis zone A complete Ground segment located in and operated by Africa, capacity to have several Regional Exploitation Centres for sensing demands, receive Image data, deliver products An operational delivery of the complete system possible 2014 A lifetime in orbit of 7-10 years Geo Africa, a new Space Observatory concept

42. © GEO Secretariat GEO Membership today 75 MEMBERS 51 PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS

43. © GEO Secretariat Frequently Asked Questions How does a country or international organisation join GEO? What are the implications, financial and otherwise, of joining?

44. © GEO Secretariat Thank you! Giovanni Rum Senior Program Officer GEO Secretariat 7bis, avenue de la Paix Casale postale 2300 Ch-1211 Geneva 2, Suisse phone: (41) 22 730 8452 e-mail: grum@geosec.org www.earthobservations.org