Eurisy appointed as Participating Organisation of the GEO Programme Board
We are delighted to announce that Eurisy is now a member of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) Programme Board.
After becoming member of GEO in 2014, Eurisy has tightened its relationship with a great variety of stakeholders engaged in Earth Observation (EO) activities. Therefore, Eurisy is extremely pleased to have made great strides in such a prominent field, and this would have never been possible without the fruitful membership and support of GEO.
Nowadays, society is facing unprecedented challenges in terms of water scarcity, energy and food security, resilience to natural hazards, population growth, disease spread and control, sustainability of ecosystems and so forth. Climate change cuts across all these challenges. Moreover, in this inter-connected world, the impact of a single event can immediately cross borders and bring cascading consequences to locations further away.
Concerted global action is needed to overcome these obstacles in order to improve living conditions for all people. Earth observations from diverse sources, including satellite, airborne, in-situ platforms, and citizen observatories, when integrated together, provide powerful tools for understanding the past and present conditions of Earth systems, as well as the interplay between them. These tools, and the improved knowledge they provide, together with socio-economic data describing the human dimension in the global environment, can help solve problems, address and mitigate risks, and deliver predictions on the behaviour of Earth systems. The outcome of this information chain is that the potential consequences of human activities on the planet can be understood, anticipated and addressed. As such, Earth observations are an indispensable component to measure and monitor our progress towards addressing societal challenges.
Eurisy and GEO work hand in hand to guarantee that satellite-based solutions are concretely deployed to face today and tomorrow’s challenges, pursuant to three global priority engagement areas: the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
GEO, on the one hand, is a unique global network connecting government institutions, academic and research institutions, data providers, businesses, engineers, scientists and experts to create innovative solutions to global challenges at a time of exponential data growth, human development and climate change that transcend national and disciplinary boundaries. The unprecedented global collaboration of experts helps identify gaps and reduce duplication in the areas of sustainable development and sound environmental management. Eurisy, on the other hand, can provide a platform for multidisciplinary collaboration. Through workshops, it aims to engage with end user organisations, while also raising awareness and promoting EO solutions among policy makers. A key tenet of Eurisy’s vision is that EO data should concretely serve society according to its real needs. The value of these data is fully realised when it is transformed into useable knowledge and information to address societal challenges.
As a Participating Organisation to the GEO Programme Board, Eurisy seeks to influence technical and policy decisions and to contribute to the GEO Work Programme. Through participation in the GEO Plenary and Programme Board, Eurisy will benefit from the global community of Earth observation experts to learn from and share knowledge in the areas of the GEO engagement priorities, namely regarding climate change, disaster risk reduction and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Having in mind the common objective to implement the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Data Sharing and Management Principles, Eurisy aims to ensure that open data is discoverable, useable, accessible, and preserved for integrated use across multiple communities and as a basis for sound decision-making.