© GEO Secretariat

GEO Global Land Cover task and

its critical role to the development of the

GEOSS

Georgios Sarantakos GEO Secretariat

Wageningen University, NL April 18, 2013

1st GEO Global Land Cover meeting

The Vision for GEOSS is…

…to realize a future wherein decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations and information.

GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan, February 2005

GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas

Cross-cutting tasks

SB-01: Ocean SB-02: Land Cover SB-03: Forest SB-04: Urban SB-05: Impact

SB-02: Land Cover

New structure of the GEO GLC task

China (Prof. Chen Jun (PoC))

USGS (Dr. Chandra Giri)

Canada (Prof. Songnian Li, Ryerson University)

Spain (Dr. Antonio Arozarena, IGN-CNIG)

ESA (Dr. Olivier Arino)

C1 Global Land Cover Datasets and Service

EEA (Dr. Chris Steenmans) (PoC)

NSDI, China (Dr.Lijun Chen)

GOFC-GOLD/University of Wageningen (Dr. Brice Mora)

C2 Global Land Cover Validation and User

Engagement

GOFC-GOLD (Prof. Martin Herold (PoC))

Tsinghua University, China (Prof. Peng Gong )

KTH, Sweden (Prof. Yifang Ban)

EARSeL (Dr. Ioannis Manakos)

KEIO University, Japan (Prof. Wanglin Yan)

Central South University, China (Prof. Yongnian Zeng)

C3 Global Land Cover Methodology and Capacity

Building/Outreach

SB-02

New structure of the GEO GLC task

SB-02

C1 Global Land Cover Datasets and

Service

C2 Global Land Cover Validation

and User Engagement

C3 Global Land Cover Methodology

and Capacity Building/Outreach

Highlights for 2012

Numerous products under development including:

• Independent validation database for global land cover products

• High-resolution global land cover products (30m and annual)

• Maps of major land cover types

• Update of an Urban Atlas (Ref. year 2011/2012)

• Global land cover portal

Human resources: • New contributions from Canada, Greece, Sweden,

EARSeL, EEA, and ISPRS • GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Project Office up and running

GEO IX Plenary

Report of progress

This year:

• Focus on in-situ data

development a network for in-

situ data similar to the CEOS

for Satellite data

• Focus on users needs

– Better cross-task fertilization

– Closer collaboration among and within the components

Next step:

Report our needs at the Plenary

U.S. Department of State, Washington DC

July 31, 2003

Role of the Global Land Cover task to the development of the GEOSS

Example 1: Biodiversity Monitoring GEO BON (>100 organisations)

Products under development including:

Global Wetland Observing System (GWOS)

A harmonised Ecosystem Map

A global network of Biodiversity Observation Sites

Filling of major geographical gaps in the monitoring network

Expansion of monitoring programs for birds, mammals, plants and butterflies

Inventories for changes in marine biodiversity (certain taxa)

Regional BONs, such as French BON, Arctic BON, China BON, AP BON etc

1. Aw

are

ness

of

bio

div

ers

ity

2. Valu

e o

f BD

inte

gra

ted

3. In

centives

for

BD

4. Sust

ain

abili

ty

5. H

abitat

loss

6. M

arine r

eso

urc

es

7. Agricu

lture

, fo

rest

and a

quacu

lture

8. Pollu

tion

9. Alie

n s

peci

es

10.

Cora

l re

efs

and

oth

er

thre

ate

ned

eco

syst

em

s

11.

Pro

tect

ed a

reas

12.

Thre

ate

ned

speci

es

13.

Genetic

div

ers

ity

14.

Eco

syst

em

Serv

ices

15.

Clim

ate

change

resi

lience

16.

Acc

ess

and

Benefit

Sharing

17.

National BD

Str

ate

gie

s &

Act

ion

Pla

ns

18.

Indig

enous

know

ledge

19.

Know

ledge

sharing

20.

Reso

urc

es

Biodiversity

Water

Climate

Ecosystem

Agriculture

Health

Ocean

Land Cover

Forest

Impacts

So

cie

tal

Be

ne

fit

Are

as/T

arg

ets

*

Cro

ss-

cu

ttin

g

Are

as

Aichi Biodiversity Targets

Strategic Goal A Strategic Goal B Strategic Goal C Strategic Goal D Strategic Goal E

Global Land Cover - Biodiversity

Example 2: Energy planning GEO Energy Task led by Austria, EC, France, Germany,

Italy, Netherlands, Pakistan, USA, CEOS, IRENA

• Global Solar and Wind Atlas

• Next steps (by 2015):

– More energy resources: Geothermal, Bioenergy, Hydropower

– More integrated tools for decision makers

Global Land Cover- Energy

Energy potentials as computed with the G4M model.

• Biomass, Hydropower

Indicators for the assessment of the best locations for a solar power plant.

• Decision making

Why to collaborate

International Level (Political Visibility): – GEO (90 Country Members)

– Parties of Rio Conventions • UN CBD, MoU in 2008,

• UNFCCC (and IPCC) and

• UN CCD (GEO PO)

– G20 (Ministers of Agriculture)

– IRENA (160 Country Members)

Why to collaborate

Regional/National level: • Capacity building activities

• Datasets

Scientific and Technical level:

• Global protocols and methods e.g. on validation

• Validation – GEO Wiki

– GEO communities e.g. GWOS

How to collaborate

• Through the Societal Benefit Implementation board

• Participation at the task team of the other tasks

• Joint workshops (thematic or regional)

When/Where

• 1st GEO Global Land Cover meeting, Wageningen University, April 18th

• 3rd International Workshop on High Resolution Global Land Cover Mapping (co-organised by GEO and ISPRS), Beijing, April 28-29

• GEO Work Plan Symposium, Geneva, June 4-6

– Overview of GEO activities

– Develop recommendation for the 2014 Work Plan update

– Strengthen synergies across Tasks and accelerate GEOSS implementation

– Collectively address issues and gaps

etc

Upcoming opportunities for GEO inter- and intra-collaborations and demonstrations

When/Where

• GEO Plenary/Ministerial, 17 January 2014, Geneva, CH

– Showcases

List of selection criteria (tentative)

• Be seen from the user perspective

• Demonstrate substantial achievements

• Demonstrate strong potential for increased

benefits post 2015

• Have a wide geographical scope (regional/global)

• Highlight connection with UN where possible

Please consider that this list is tentative. The final list will be communicated soon by the

GEO Ministerial Working Group

Thank you for your attention

gsarantakos@geosec.org