GEO Ecosystems SBACoordination:

A. Provenzale, CNR-ISAC

GEO SecretariatYubao Qiu

ISRSE35(Beijing International Convention Center)

23 April, 2013

U.S. Department of State, Washington DC July 31, 2003

GEO, the Group on Earth Observations

An Intergovernmental Organization with 89 Member Countries, the European Commission and 67 Participating Organizations

History of GEO• The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) stressed the

importance of Earth observation systems for protecting people and the planet and identified priority actions for strengthening capacity and collaboration in this field.

• The Earth Observation Summits in Washington in 2003, Tokyo in 2004 and Brussels in 2005 to adopt and carry out the 10-Year Implementation Plan for building GEOSS and to establish the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) to implement this plan;

• The G8 Summits in Evian in 2003, Gleneagles in 2005 and Heiligendamm in 2007 committed to strengthen international cooperation on comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable observation and information systems and affirmed the role of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

GEOSS: A Global, Coordinated, Comprehensive andSustained System of Observing Systems

GEOSS will be built from the expansion and interlinking of existing observation and information systems and the investments of Members and Participating Organizations in new systems

How GEO works

• Coordinating activities of Members and Participating Organisations

• Supporting the development of capabilities for Observations, Processing and Information Dissemination

• Encouraging cross-cutting approaches

The GEO implementation tool is the Workplan

The GEO Workplan

To address targets of the Implementation Plan and track relevant progress, the main tool is a Workplan, approved every year by the GEO Plenary.

The Plan is structured in tasks encompassing all the SBA’s and the transverse areas leading to the progressive definition and implementation of GEOSS

Current Workplan is the 2012-2015, available at GEO website http://www.earthobservations.org/

EC-01 - Global Ecosystem Monitoring

Before 2015, GEO aims to:

to establish, in conjunction with a comprehensive biodiversity observation network, a wide-ranging monitoring capability for all ecosystems and the human impacts on them, to improve the assessment, protection and sustainable management of terrestrial, coastal and marine resources and the delivery of associated ecosystem services.

Improving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal and marine resources

EC-01 - Global Ecosystem MonitoringImproving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal and marine resources

to establish the monitoring capability for all ecosystems and the human impacts on them, to improve ecosystem services.

Before 2015, GEO aims to： Methodologies Techniques Tools communities and networksA

chie

ved

dem

on

stra

ted

Global Ecosystems Mapping (USGS)

major marine and coastal ecosystems

SB-01-C2

RAMSAR Wetlands

GEO-BON

EC-01-C1 Global Standardized Ecosystem Classification, Map and Inventory

Heritage sites & Biosphere Reserves

HINST,UNESCO

EC-01-C2 Operational Monitoring of Key Ecosystems and Related Services

Himalayan Khumbu Valley

key ecosystems services moist forests (GFOI?) dry forests (GFOI?) Arctic ecosystems (INTERACT) Wetlands (GEOBON) Dry-lands (UNCCD) Mountains (SHARE)

SHARE GeoNetwork

phenology observations

ABCC Programme Four Countries, Au, Br, Ca, Cn

Noway

Italy

And many other contributors…

• Somehow “quiescent” SBA• marked “red” in the evaluations• Thoughts about blending with

Biodiversity SBA (GEO-BON)

New coordination started at the beginning of 2013

Focus on: ecosystem processes and functions

ecosystem servicestemporal changes in ecosystems

biotic/abiotic interactionsresponse to climate change

in addition to data, make available also:analysis tools

empirical models

Two components:

C1 - Global Standardized Ecosystem Classification, Map and Inventory

(PoC: R. Sayre, USGS)

C2 - Operational Monitoring of Key Ecosystems and Related Services

(PoC: AP, ISAC-CNR)

possibly: C3 – ABCC?

C1 - Global Standardized Ecosystem Classification, Map and Inventory

Standardized, robust, and practical classification and map of global ecosystems

at management-appropriatescales for terrestrial, freshwater,

and marine environments.

Open issues: Ecosystem Taxonomy

involvement of new Europe, China

C2 - Operational Monitoring of Key Ecosystems and Related Services

mountain ecosystems Arctic ecosystems

forests (incl. Mediterranean forests)wetlands, lagoons and coastal areas

arid and semi-arid regionsoceans (Blue Planet)tropical ecosystems

focus on protected areas

Open issues 1:re-build the community

identifying active contributors/leads

(eg EU: LTER Europe, LifeWatch,AnaEE, INTERACT, EU BON)

Crucial Chinese contributions(eg NRSCC, RADI-CAS, ISPRS,

Ministry of Environment)

International organisations and programs(HIST/UNESCO, ABCC)

Open issues 2:

Relationships with other GEO activities

Biodiversity SBA and GEO-BON(perhaps a joint component?)

Global Forest Observation InitiativeCold Regions (for mountain ecosystems)

Global Land CoverBlue Planet

strong collaboration, avoid duplications

Open issues 3:

Create a community of practice and base the offer on users’ demand

i.e., go beyond scientists’ interests

Define the Key Ecosystem Servicesfor each ecosystem type

(essential ecosystem variables, EBV?)

Start defining the structure of the archivesand populate them with data

(and define data policies)

Next events:

EU meetings on Mediterranean forests,coastal and lagoon ecosystems

(non-EU participants very welcome)

Workplan symposium (Geneva) 4-6 June

GEO-BON Steering Commitee, July

General GEO Ecosystems meeting (Rome, September)?

Mountain ecosystem meeting (with Cold Regions?) when and where?

GEO X Plenary (Geneva) January 2014GEO Ministerial Summit, January 2014

Thank you!secretariat@geosec.org