1. Report to GEO-3 of Data Utilization Sub Group GEO-3 Meeting Cape Town, South Africa 26 February 2004 Co-Chairs:- Reinaldo Silveira, Brazil Pierre Dubreuil, Canada Jack Kelly, USA Dominique Marbouty, ECMWF Group on Earth bservations Group on Earth bservations

2. Group on Earth bservations Group on Earth bservations 23 February 2004 GEO-3 SGDU 2 Issues from Data Utilisation Sub-Group consolidated in the recommendations to GEO-3 from all sub-groups (Data Transformation into Usable Information) (GEO prioritization process) (Identification of GEO themes) 1.Delivering the GEOSS societal benefits: A sketch implementation plan 2.Data archiving is a mission-critical issue 3.Future work Scope of the presentation

3. Group on Earth bservations Group on Earth bservations 23 February 2004 GEO-3 SGDU 3 Recommendations from all subgroups regarding transformation of data to information  Urge each country to invest in local and national data utilization activities, in order to benefit from international EO investments.  Share data utilization practices, approaches and systems – as well as data – among countries and agencies, in particular for capacity building purposes.  Encourage – in the development and implementation of the 10-year plan - international and multi-national organizations to develop and strengthen formal agreements by which information products are provided to other countries.

4. Group on Earth bservations Group on Earth bservations 23 February 2004 GEO-3 SGDU 4 Considerations in sketching a GOESS Implementation Plan to deliver the Societal Benefits  It will take time to build the Capacity to deliver each Societal benefit, at National level, at Regional level, at Global level  Each GEOSS Societal Benefit requires a specific configuration of Observations, Data Utilisation capabilities, Architectural capabilities.  All the Societal Benefits require a shared, and inter-operable, infrastructure of thematic implementations.  The initial implementations (and the build-up phases) for the GEOSS Themes are driven by the schedules for data availability schedules for development of data utilisation

5. Group on Earth bservations Group on Earth bservations 23 February 2004 GEO-3 SGDU 5 Sketch plan for GEOSS Initial Implementations and Build-ups (elaborated upon IGOS-P, GMES and GCOS initiatives) * GEO Societal Benefits (FD V1.0 §2.2) 1 Hazards 2 Health 3 Energy 4 Climate 5 Water 6 Weather Fcst 7 Coastal 8 Ecosystems 9 Agriculture 10 Biodiversity World Weather Watch GEO Theme GEO Societal Benefits Target 123456789 10 2003Ocean********** 2005-6Water Cycle********** 2007-8Carbon *** 2007-8Atmos Chem** * * * * 2007-8Land* **** *** 2007-8Water Resour.****** *** 2007-8Hazards****** * 2007-8Coastal***** *** * TBDHealth * * * TBDBiodiversity * * * * * **

6. Group on Earth bservations Group on Earth bservations 23 February 2004 GEO-3 SGDU 6 Data archiving capability, and easy archive accessibility, are critical components for the success of GEOSS for several reasons. As examples: Land use change Epidemiology Assessment of climate record Assessment of extremes Reanalysis Product development & validation  Archiving has to be recognised as a mission-critical component of GEOSS Data Archiving

7. Group on Earth bservations Group on Earth bservations 23 February 2004 GEO-3 SGDU 7 Future work  Complete the report  Support the writing of the implementation plan

8. Group on Earth bservations Group on Earth bservations 23 February 2004 GEO-3 SGDU 8 Summary from Data Utilisation 1.A GEOSS implementation plan can be sketched which Delivers the societal benefits expected from GEOSS within the 10-year time-frame; Is incremental in the successive development of infrastructure themes, and improvement of societal benefits; Shares the benefits of the thematic infrastructure across many societal benefits. 2.Data archiving should be recognised as a mission- critical component of GEOSS.