Towards an Action PlanThree years to mid-Decade

Session P82nd GEOSS Science and Technology

Stakeholder WorkshopAugust 31 2012

Towards an Action Plan

Goal from 2005 Plan

• GEO will establish, within 10 years, its system of systems to provide timely data and products for local, national, regional, and international policy makers.

Purpose of GEOSS – implementation plan

• The purpose of GEOSS is to achieve comprehensive, coordinated and sustained observations of the Earth system, in order to improve monitoring of the state of the Earth, increase understanding of Earth processes, and enhance prediction of the behavior of the Earth system.

• GEOSS will meet the need for timely, quality long-term global information as a basis for sound decision making,

• 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 Target]

SBAs• Reducing loss of life and property from natural and human-induced

disasters;• Understanding environmental factors affecting human health and

well-being;• Improving management of energy resources;• Understanding, assessing, predicting, mitigating, and adapting to

climate variability and change;• Improving water resource management through better

understanding of the water cycle;• Improving weather information, forecasting, and warning;• Improving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal,

and marine ecosystems;• Supporting sustainable agriculture and combating desertification; • Understanding, monitoring, and conserving biodiversity.

SBAs and Targets

SBAs• Disasters• Health• Energy• Climate• Water• Weather• Ecosystems• Agriculture• Biodiversity

• Targets• Architecture• Data• Capacity Building• Science and Technology• User engagement• Agriculture• Biodiversity• Climate• Risk management• Ecosystems• Energy• Health• Water• Weather

Decision Support

Tools

Assessments

Decision Support Systems

Decision Support

Tools

Assessments

Decision Support Systems

Decision Support

Assessments (technical)

Decision Support Systems

ManagementDecisions

PolicyDecisions

Societal BenefitsHigh PerformanceComputing,Communication,& Visualization

Standards &Interoperability

Predictions

Observations

Monitoring & Measurements

remotely-sensed in situ

Earth Science Models• Oceans• Ice• Land• Atmosphere• Solid Earth• Biosphere

Monitoring & Measurements

remotely-sensed in situ

Earth Observation Systems

• Remotely-sensed• In situ

Earth Science Models• Oceans• Ice• Land• Atmosphere• Solid Earth• Biosphere

Earth System Models• Oceans• Ice• Land• Atmosphere• Solid Earth• Biosphere

DATA

GEOSS - Define an Architecture Integrated Solutions (from Technical Plan)

On-going feedback to optimize value and reduce gaps

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Scientific policy advice – chief scientist to the UN

or interface science-policy

Science.

Science and policy – what are the challenges?

Science.

Policy/Society

Science.

Policy/Society

Policy/Society

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Integrative sustainability concept from the Helmholtz Association (Kopfmüller et al., 2001)

Debating Issues – defining actions

• Data and Information

• Communication

• Capacity Building and Education

• Strategy

Communication

• Should GEO expand communication of directions and benefits of GEOSS to communities beyond GEO?

• For communication with policy makers, how does GEO do it and does GEO have the right people?

Data and Information• To what extent does GEO provide access to decisionable

information vs. data?

• Should GEO encourage and facilitate the definition and implementation of “essential variables”?

• How can insitu measurements be stimulated through GEO in conjunction with integration with remotely sensed observations? What is the role of citizen science data for GEOSS? Observatories of human impacts?

• How does GEOSS address quality and timeliness of data?

• Does GEO need a set of publically understood indicators and, if so, how are they to be defined?

• Data sharing - Free and open access to data should expanded beyond GEO members?

Capacity Building and Education

• Should we reinvigorate capacity building?• Should we engage the citizen scientists?

Strategy Questions• integration of top-down and bottoms-up; where do the

two meet?• Should GEO actively and effectively engage social and

economic sciences?• What are realistic boundaries - "own what we must

and influence what we can” - what should GEO own?• Where does sustainability fit into GEOSS?• Should there be private sector engagement in the

current work plan?• interrelation of global and national – how does GEOSS

interact?

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Data and Information 1 How can insitu measurements be stimulated through GEO in

conjunction with integration with remotely sensed

observations? What is the role of citizen science data for

GEOSS (human Observatories)

Insitu measurements provide an essential component of environmental

information. Governments should provide a baseline for calibration of citizen

observations. Citizens will both observe and use data. Ocean data is a good

example of value of citizen observations. Better tools are required and need

funding for both tools and observations. GEO should facilitate government support

of insitu observations. Insitu should support real time availability in areas such as

air quality water quality –beach- reports leading to personal adaptive management

How does GEOSS address quality and timeliness of data?

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Data and Information 1

How can insitu measurements be stimulated through

GEO in conjunction with integration with remotely sensed

observations? What is the role of citizen science data for

GEOSS (human Observatories)

How does GEOSS address quality and timeliness of

data?

Quality needs to be understood. GEO can facilitate understanding of quality for non

science users. Feedback from users on quality is essential. WORK OF QA4EO,

geoviqua, etc should be encouraged and included in GEOSS. The definition of quality

needs to be better refined. GEOSS needs to be a facilitator for quality indicators

among providers. GEOSS can provide feedback on usability user response

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Data and information To what extent does GEOSS provide access to

decisionable information vs. data?

While GEOSS does not currently emphasize decision support products, we believe

availability of decision support products should be a long term objective of the GEO

plan and we should be addressing this in moving forward

Should GEO encourage and facilitate the definition and

implementation of “essential variables”? PROMOTING THE CURRENTLY ENVISIONED VARIABLES IN CLIMATE; OCEANS

AND BIODIVERSITY SHOULD BE DONE BY geo; the communities need to make the

decisions on. The definition of essential.The relation betrween essential variables and

essential Indicators is important and the essential indicators needs to be addresses.

In the near term, we should focus on those indicators that support GEO targets. Allow

users to drive indicators.

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Data and Information 2

Does GEO need a set of publically understood

indicators and, if so, how are they to be defined?

Yes – work should begin in the near term. Base indicator development on

past research and experience with existing indicators – partciularly at the

policy interface. Engage Columbia, Yale and others. Value may be more if use

satellite data and would be a fertile area for GEO.

Data sharing - Free and open access to data should

expanded beyond GEO members?

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Communications

Should GEO expand communication of directions and

benefits of GEOSS to communities beyond GEO?

For communication with policy makers, how does

GEO do it and does GEO have the right people?

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Capacity Building and Education

Should we reinvigorate capacity building?

Should we engage the citizen scientists?

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Strategy 1

What are realistic boundaries - "own what we must and

influence what we can” - what should GEO own?

The glue only…synergies with repositories should Be further examined

and encourage long term storage and access. Funding of data

stewardship is still a significant funding issue and GEO should provide a

forum on this subject. GEO can offer policy guidance and coordination at

a global level.

Where does sustainability fit into GEOSS?

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Strategy 2

integration of top-down and bottoms-up; where do the

two meet?

Should (how can) GEO actively and effectively engage

social and economic sciences and in what ways? IPCC recommendation to do this. Important with moving to decision support. For

example these are very desirable for citizen observations. The mission of GEOSS

is to support decision making and these decisions involve human elements. Can

social data repositoriés be part of GEOSS?

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Strategy 3

Should there be private sector engagement in the

current work plan?

interrelation of global and national – how does GEOSS

interact?

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Strategy 4

Efforts be made to develop a sense of ownership

amongst the users for the GEOSS Targets, with a

strengthened role for the CoPs, as an important

component of the annual work plan process

ACTIONS• stronger involvement of the users, international

science programmes, policy and decision makers and industry in the entire workflow of the development of knowledge and products be developed;

• capacity building and development of new and existing capacity with respect to the use of knowledge in evidence-based management for both providers and users of EO;

• Nurture stronger interactions and partnerships between developed and developing nations