Transverse Areas

Capacity Building

Building a sustainable Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) will require strengthening human skills, institutional capacities and infrastructure.

Individuals need training on how to access and use Earth observation data and decision-support tools. Governments and institutions need long-term programmes that build their capacity to make decisions based on Earth observations, manage and protect natural resources and engage the private sector in these activities. Infrastructure investments are essential for upgrading and inter-linking hardware and software for acquiring, processing, interpreting and distributing observation data.

GEO’s role is to serve as an honest broker that assists the providers and users of Earth observations as well as potential resource providers. GEO also collects information on current capacity-building efforts and needs around the world in order to identify gaps and possible duplication.

The Capacity Building Committee seeks to improve the efficiency of capacity-building resources by coordinating existing efforts and to develop a global partnership and dialogue between donors and the managers and users of observation systems.

Architecture and Data

The various instruments and systems comprising GEOSS need to be configured so that they can exchange information with one another and provide the integrated data and information products that decision makers need.

The compatibility of different types of data and systems will be ensured by the emerging “architecture” of GEOSS. Architecture refers to the arrangements for making all of the GEOSS components “interoperable”.

These components include numerous in-situ, airborne and space-based Earth observation systems; data-assimilation centres for collecting and processing the raw data needed by modellers and researchers; computerized models of the oceans, atmosphere and other Earth systems; systems and services for distributing data; and decision-support tools and other products for end-users.

The components, services and standards that together constitute GEOSS will be described in a registry. This essential part of the GEOSS architecture will feature tools for browsing through its contents.

The GEO Architecture and Data Committee (ADC) is responsible for advancing the interoperability of GEOSS.

Science and Technology

The international goal of constructing GEOSS has been made possible by recent progress in the Earth sciences. It also rests on dramatic technological advances in observation instruments and data management. Scientists continue to invent new Earth observation and measurement techniques and to advance the power and quality of models.

GEOSS will return the favour to science by generating the comprehensive, near-real-time and integrated Earth observation data and information so vital to future scientific progress. It will also provide the framework and stability needed for ensuring long-term time series of observations, and it will help to identify gaps and overlaps in observations, research and systems development.

The science and technology community, then, is both a key sponsor and a key beneficiary of GEOSS.

The role of the Science and Technology Community is to engage research and development institutions, universities, government laboratories, non-governmental organizations and industry in the construction of GEOSS.

User Interface

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems will only succeed if it is user driven. It is therefore vital to engage a large variety of users, from developed and developing countries, and from governmental departments and ministries, scientific institutes, industry, and national and international organizations, in the construction of GEOSS.

While GEOSS focuses on nine distinct groups of users and uses – the Societal Benefit Areas – these user groups cannot be viewed in isolation. Instead, they are mutually interdependent. They require many “cross-cutting” or “synergistic” observation systems, data sets and solutions.

The role of the User Interface Committee is to engage the many potential users of integrated Earth observations in the development, implementation, and use of GEOSS.