1. © GEO Secretariat Global Datasets (GEOSS task DA-09-03) 3rd GEO European Project Workshop 8-9 October 2009 Istanbul Douglas Cripe, GEO Secretariat

2. © GEO Secretariat U.S. Department of State, Washington DC July 31, 2003 GEO, the Group on Earth Observations An Intergovernmental group with 80 Members and 57 Participating Organizations

3. © GEO Secretariat What is GEO? launched in response to calls for action by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the G8 (Group of Eight) leading industrialized countries voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations –79 member governments + EC –57 Participating Organizations (PO) provides a framework within which these partners can develop new projects and coordinate their strategies and investments charged with developing GEOSS

4. © GEO Secretariat What is GEOSS? Global Earth Observation System of Systems an integrating infrastructure for Earth observing and information systems to support informed decision making for society 10-year implementation plan 2015: Global, Coordinated, Comprehensive and Sustained System of Observing Systems

5. © GEO Secretariat Technical Specifications for Collecting, Processing, Storing, and Disseminating Data and Products Based on Non-proprietary Standards Defining System Compliance for Contribution to GEOSS GEOSS Implementation Requires: Interoperability of Systems Need for an Interoperable Architecture and Standard Formats to benefit fully from Earth Observation Systems

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

7. © GEO Secretariat  Improve and Facilitate Coordinate Observation Systems (avoid duplications)  Provide Easier & More Open Data Access  Foster Use (Science, Applications)  Building Capacity  Identify gaps in observations (based on user requirements) …Earth Observation Systems should be coordinated and shared internationally … to answer Society’s need for informed decision making GEOSS: main objectives

8. © GEO Secretariat

9. 9 Data Management in 10-Year Plan In the implementation of GEOSS, harmonization of observations, real- or near real-time monitoring, integration of information from in situ, airborne and space-based observations through data assimilation and models.

10. © GEO Secretariat Strategic Target for Data Management Before 2015, GEO aims to: “provide a shared, easily accessible, timely, sustained stream of comprehensive data of documented quality, as well as metadata and information products, for informed decision making.” This will be achieved through: Preparation of and access to […] global and regional information encompassing: –geographic information such as basic global geodetic reference frames; –cross-cutting data sets such as land cover and land use information; –essential socio-economic information;

11. © GEO Secretariat Global Datasets in the Work Plan DA-09-03: Global Data Sets Provide a suite of global datasets based on improved and validated data sources Facilitate interoperability among data sets Register the global data sets in the GEOSS registries

12. © GEO Secretariat Helping to build GEOSS Contributed Activities Contributed Activities Contributed Activities Contributed Activities Contributed Activities GEOSS Common Infrastructure Standards and Interoperability Data Sharing Guidelines Transverse activities Global Data Sets Harmonisation Collaboration Leverage Voluntary Consensus-based

13. © GEO Secretariat GEO 2009-2011 Work Plan GEOSS Global Data Sets: –Most Global Datasets generated and managed through SBA-specific tasks –5 Global + 1 SBA Datasets that each serve multiple SBA’s are coordinated as transverse tasks DA-09-03a Global Land Cover DA-09-03b Global Meteorological and Environmental Data DA-09-03c Digital Geological Map Data (OneGeology) DA-09-03d Global Digital Elevation Map US-09-03: Cross-Cutting Products and Services –Global Soil Moisture WA-06-02: Droughts, Floods and Water Resource Management –GMES: projects related to land management (GEOLAND) Architecture and Data Committee (Melbourne Sept. 2009): New action to define criteria for addition of further global datasets under DA-09-03 (Built-up area map?)

14. © GEO Secretariat Data Management Before 2015, GEO aims to provide a shared, easily accessible, timely, sustained stream of comprehensive data of documented quality, as well as metadata and information products, for informed decision making. Data Management in the Strategic Targets Document Coming back to : Task DA-09-01a: Quality Assurance For Earth Observation

15. © GEO Secretariat online since release on 29 June 2009 A global DEM at 30 meter resolution from ASTER data freely accessible online since release on 29 June 2009

16. © GEO Secretariat www.OneGeology.org

17. © GEO Secretariat Free and Open Access to the LANDSAT Archive (USGS - USA)

18. © GEO Secretariat Thank you! earthobservations.org