Global Earth Observation System of Systems

From summits to a plan

The first Earth Observation Summit, in Washington, DC, on 31 July 2003, created an ad hoc Group on Earth Observations (GEO) to coordinate national observation systems. The Third Summit in Brussels on 16 February 2005 adopted the GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan and established GEO as the body to carry it out. The plan covered nine societal benefit areas, among them disasters, health, energy, climate, water, weather, ecosystems, agriculture and biodiversity.

GEO's secretariat is in Geneva, and membership has grown to over a hundred governments and many participating organisations.

A system of systems

GEOSS does not own satellites or stations. It connects those that members already run, through common standards, interoperability arrangements and a set of data-sharing principles that call for the full and open exchange of data, metadata and products, recognising international instruments and national policies. The GEOSS Portal and platform help users discover and access data from many providers.

The first 10-year implementation plan ended in 2015, and GEO has since worked under later strategic plans.

What it shows

GEOSS is a lesson in what an agreement can and cannot do. It created common practice, data-sharing principles and a catalogue without a central budget for instruments. Contributions remain voluntary and uneven, and the value to users depends on the quality and metadata of the contributed systems.

What a framework can do

GEOSS has been criticised for being a coordinating body without resources to build anything, and praised for creating a shared vocabulary and a set of principles that many programmes adopt. Its most lasting effect may be the data-sharing principles, which influenced national open data policies in Earth observation, and the habit of describing observations in standard metadata. A framework can be the right form for a system that must be built by many owners, but it needs the owners to want to take part, and it works best when its rules are short and its benefits clear. In practice the portal's value depends on the providers: where a dataset has complete metadata and a stable link it is found and used, and where it does not it effectively does not exist for the system, which is why the quality of description is part of the framework's work. Over time, the programme has shifted its emphasis from building a portal to supporting the communities that use Earth observations, such as agriculture, health and biodiversity, which is where the benefits it was created to deliver become visible.

Instruments and technologies

• GEOSS Portal and platform A catalogue and brokering service that exposes the datasets of many providers through common search and access interfaces.
• Data-sharing principles A set of agreed principles for open, timely, minimal-cost exchange of data.
• Societal benefit areas A framework that organises work around the needs of users.

Timeline

• 2003 First Earth Observation Summit in Washington, DC, on 31 July creates the ad hoc GEO.
• 2005 Third Summit in Brussels, 16 February, adopts the GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan and establishes GEO.
• 2015 End of the first 10-Year Implementation Plan period (2005–2015).

Key lessons for observation today

• Federate without absorbing Members keep their systems and agree on how to share. Voluntary frameworks scale where central ownership cannot.
• A catalogue is not enough Discovery needs good metadata, and metadata is only as good as the contributors. Quality is part of the framework.
• Principles before technology The data-sharing principles came with the portal. Policy and interface go together.

Sources

• GEO, GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan
• ESA, GEOSS brochure BR-240
• Wikipedia, Global Earth Observation System of Systems (secondary)