GEO Week 2018

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side event

Can we have a GEO Initiative on a common approach to Essential Variables?

08:30 AM 10:00 AM Room D

The concept of Essential Variables (EVs) is increasingly used in Earth observation communities to identify those variables that have a high impact, high feasibility and relative low cost of implementation. The community of GCOS was the first to develop a full set of Essential Climate Variables (ECV). Other examples of communities applying the same concept are oceans (EOV), biosphere (EBV), water cycle, etc. ConnectinGEO illustrated that EVs can be a useful approach to several indicators for monitor SDGs. ERA-PLANET GEO-Essential proposes a need to review and extend the current EV framework and a priority assignment in designing, deploying and maintaining EV in connection with the responsible observation networks. At the same time, EVs should be promoted among all SBAs in GEO. In this event we will invite a panel of experts to discuss about the current status of the EVs, the usefulness of some of them in creating SDG indicators and the gaps to be solved in communities in the near future. Finally, we will define a roadmap to create a new community initiative about EVs in the future GEO work program.

Agenda

Motivational talks (Moderator: TBD). [40 minutes]

Welcome presentations from ConnectinGEO and GEOEssential projects (Joan Masó, CREAF and Anthony Lehmann, University of Genève)
EBV definition process: Steps and consensus (Laetitia Navarro, GEOBON)
The work in GEOGLOWS to define Water EVs: First steps and status (Dr. José Romero, Chief Scientist Environment International Abt. Internationales, BAFU )
EVs definition for crop monitoring: developing a common language (Ian Jarvis, GEOGLAM)

Round table (Moderator: Joan Masó, CREAF). [50 minutes]

The role of Ecosystem EVs (Michael Mirtl, EAA), 3-5 minutes presentation
Research Infrastructures as data providers for EVs (Ari Asmi, ENVRI network), 3-5 minutes presentation
The process to establish a GEO Initiative and mobilize different committees (Douglas Cripe, geosec), 3-5 minutes presentation
Open floor to all the participants and the audience (www.sli.do)

Final remarks and conclusions (Joan Masó and Anthony Lehmann)

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side event

Identifying, communicating and delivering the value of Earth observations - a regional approach

08:30 AM 12:30 PM Room C1

See live stream here

The importance of sustained EO data and innovative EO-based services becomes even greater in a period marked by the advent of Big Data – spearheaded by Copernicus free, full and open data policy, and the emergence of new business models. In this context, the goals of the workshop are to discuss on different approaches, best practices and current plans around the coordination of EO activities at regional level, to find the way to move towards the sustainable delivery of EO services and products, to measure the benefits of EO and to communicate them to relevant stakeholders and to find ways to design long-term, high-impact actions for the uptake of GEOSS and Copernicus.

Documents

Agenda

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side event

So many maps, so little time: Making informed decisions in high-risk environments

08:30 AM 10:30 AM Room C2

Our panel intends to provide participants with an enhanced understanding of the challenges to using Earth observation data and data products from a humanitarian response and development perspective. The session will be broken out into two scenarios. The first scenario will represent the identification of data needed and decisions made in a rapid-paced environment to impact on life and property. This will capture the process of deciding what data is needed, who is at risk (vulnerable and exposed), and what elements of risk need to be communicated to ensure informed decision making, as well as exploring modalities of communication. The second scenario will represent the need for data to enable decisions following a disaster response, with the goal of informing future resilient development as well as whether people are placed in a more risk-exposed or risk-adverse environment. The second scenario will include decisions regarding relocation and how to identify settlement development that avoids unintended risks and related consequences.

The session will conclude with a formal panel discussion that walks the participants through the various roles that governance and policy (Sendai Framework), remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence, and cognitive science have to play in these short- and long-term scenarios.

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side event

GEOSS EVOLVE - "Unlock Earth Observations" towards Knowledge

08:30 AM 12:30 PM Room B2

The third GEO Data Providers workshop recommended to bring more knowledge into GEOSS. This is confirmed by the analysis of GEOSS use and data contents performed by the GEOSS EVOLVE initiative. This event will present the current analysis, discuss the evolution challenges and scenarios of GEOSS, and present the advancements planned by the GEOSS Platform team to address current needs and move from data to knowledge. In particular, the GEOSS Platform team will present the next coming functionalities to support knowledge sharing in GEOSS, discussing with the Community (through dynamic and interactive sessions) the fundamental transformation towards a Knowledge-based Platform.

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side event

Asia Oceania Day: "Fostering synergy among Regional GEOSS Initiatives"

08:30 AM 06:30 PM Room B1

See live stream here

The concept of the Asia Oceania Day is ”Fostering synergy among Regional GEOSS Initiatives”.

This session is hosted by ASIA-OCEANIA GEOSS (AOGEOSS) Initiative, a regional cooperation program in ASIA-OCEANIA region, and welcomes people who are interested in regional cooperation in GEO Community. The event is divided into the following two parts. The First part of the event introduces activities of AOGEOSS Initiative such as highlight of Asia Pacific Symposium, the report about the Earth Observation supporting Pacific Island Nation and emerging case study of the Mecon basin. Second part of the event focuses on National and Regional GEO and has two panel sessions with guests from National GEO and other Regional GEOSSes(RGs) such as AfriGEOSS, AmeriGEOSS and EuroGEOSS to discuss what function is expected to develop Regional GEOSS etc.

Documents

AO Day schedule

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side event

Towards result-oriented GEOSS with NextGEOSS' user-centric approach

08:30 AM 10:30 AM Room G

NextGEOSS is a European data hub and platform, supporting the setup of results-oriented Earth Observation based services. Learn how NextGEOSS is integrating more than ten pilot applications and services for systematic processing in a scalable cloud environment. The integrated applications span through diverse areas of major interest for GEO such as Crop Monitoring, Energy Operations, Biodiversity, Air Pollution and others. In this session a method for co-designing with partners through streamlining a five-step process of Engagement, Data Preparation, Platform Setup, Pilots Integration and Service Operations will be explained. The presenters and audience are invited to discuss how this can be aligned with and contribute to the future GEO.

Agenda:

08:30 Welcome introduction, Bente Lilja Bye, BLB

08:35 Towards a result-oriented strategy for GEOSS, Gilberto Camara, GEO Secretariat

08:50 NextGEOSS - a European platform facilitating result orientation, Nuno Catarino, DEIMOS

09:05 AmeriGEOSS/GEOGLOWS collaboration - moving in the direction of results across regional GEO (GEOSS), Angelica Gutierrez, NOAA

09:15 Q&A - tea/coffee stretching legs

09:30 NextGEOSS 5-step user experience. A user centric onboarding process, Marie-Françoise Voidrot, OGC

09:45 User Services in Action

Energy, Lionel Menard, ARMINES
Food Security, Agricultural Monitoring, Sven Gilliams, VITO
Air Pollution in Mega Cities, Julian Meyer-Arnek / Thilo Erbertseder, DLR

10:00 Discussion: How would you leverage your service through GEO using NextGEOSS?

10:30 Close

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side event

Earth Observation Applications for the Sustainable Development Goals: GEO Work Programme Efforts and Opportunities for Scaling Successful Methods

09:00 AM 02:00 PM Room E

See live stream here

This side event will provide a platform for GEO Work Programme Flagships, Initiatives and Community Activities to showcase specific actions, projects and other relevant activities in support of the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The event will enable the sharing of approaches that build on GEO's strengths and demonstrate the essential contribution of Earth observation data and geospatial information to support sustainable development at global, regional, and national levels, and within local communities.

The event will address some of the following questions:

What are examples of successful methods adopted by countries for monitoring and reporting on the SDGs, and how can these be scaled up to enable widespread, sustained use by countries?
What are examples of existing, and forthcoming, initiatives, tools, and technologies, aimed to enable greater use of EO and geospatial data for sustainable development?
How are the GEO Work Programme activities organize, in coordination with EO4SDG, to further help GEO align its engagement with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and what are examples of efficient approaches that support the SDGs, targets, and indicators?

Documents

Website and twitter

EO4SDG Initiative website
Twitter: @EO4SDG

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side event

Detecting and Analysing Changes and Future Scenarios in Protected Areas: from ECOPOTENTIAL to GEO ECO

11:00 AM 01:00 PM Room C2

See live stream here

ECOPOTENTIAL is a large European H2020 project focused on the use of Earth Observation (EO) data for monitoring natural ecosystems in a number of European and a few non-European protected areas spanning a wide range of biogeographical regions. ECOPOTENTIAL is a major contributor to the GEO ECO Initiative and to EuroGEOSS. The ECOPOTENTIAL project intends to analyse long-term and present environmental changes that affect the health state of ecosystems and the services they provide, to address future conservation scenarios. Value added products, essential variables from EO as well as meteoclimatic data are ingested into suitable modelling approaches. Major findings useful for reporting on SDG 15 will be discussed.

The event will address the following question:

How can ECOPOTENTIAL achievements contribute to:

Understand the effects of climate change on ecosystems;
Define and monitor resilience indicators and Essential Variables;
Data cube exploitation: linking the past (time series analysis) to future scenario modelling;
Provide insights for nature based solutions;
Support Sustainable Development Goals (SDG15 and others);

Programme

Chair P. Blonda (CNR)

Preliminaries
- Side event objective and proposed discussion themes (Palma Blonda - CNR) [5 min]
- The ECOPOTENTIAL project goals (Carmela Marangi - CNR) [5 min]
- GEO ECO: motivation (Joan Masò - CREAF) [5 min]
EO change detection - Chair: S. Gamberini (CNR)
- Ecosystem change detection: why and how through EODESM and FAO-LCCS. The present (Palma Blonda - CNR) [5 min]
- From land cover to land use for ecosystem monitoring through FAO-LCML. The future (A. Di Gregorio-FAO Consultant) [15 min]
- EV change detection for biodiversity monitoring (Letitia Navarro – GEOBON) [10 min]
Products for GEO ECO
- From EODESM to the Virtual Lab (Paolo Mazzetti and Mattia Santoro - CNR video) [10 min]
- Standardized global ecosystem mapping for terrestrial, freshwater, and marine domains - The GEO ECO approach (Roger Sayre - USGS) [10 min]
- EO products for ecosystem modelling at regional scale (Carmela Marangi - CNR) [10 min]
- Past and future snow cover changes in the Alps and driving mechanisms (Elisa Palazzi - CNR) [5 min]
- Snow cover evolution using the Swiss Data Cube in Gran Paradiso (Gregory Giuliani-UnepGRID) [10 min]
Perspectives
- After ECOPOTENTIAL: what comes next (Silvia Giamberini - CNR) [5 min]
- What else for contributing to SDG15 (Douglas Cripe- Geosec) [10 min]
Final Discussion [10 min] – lead by Palma Blonda (CNR) and Joan Masò (CREAF)

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side event

EU Africa cooperation in Earth Observation

11:00 AM 12:30 PM Room H

The objective of the event is to present H2020 projects (e.g. AfriCultuRes, TWIGA, SWOS, GEOCRADLE, GROUNDTRUTH 2.0) promoting the uptake of EO data in Africa in order to enhance food security, water supply, protection of biodiversity, diversification of the energy resources, and building of a climate resilient society. The event will explore reinforcing the participation of those projects in the GEOSS multiannual WP in coordination with the initiative GMES in Africa.

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side event

An innovative impact-driven approach on Capacity Building (CB) for GEO flagships, thematic and regional initiatives and community activities

01:30 PM 05:30 PM Room H

Capacity Building or Development, is a cross-cutting aspect of all GEO activities, whether a flagship, thematic or regional initiative, or community activity. Different CB intervention modalities are being used at individual, organizational or institutional level or at a combination of levels. CB targets different audiences and uses varying levels of impact monitoring linked to quantitative and/or qualitative indicators and through sharing success stories. This session will highlight ongoing CB activities in GEO and provide an open forum for discussion on effective practices and needs that can be incorporated into future workplans.

Agenda

Draft agenda

Target audience:

Points of contact and CB coordinators of GEO flagships, initiatives and community activities.
Project members involved in CB activities or in developing CB resources.

Objectives of the side-event:

To describe and discuss how GEO can facilitate capacity building on different intervention levels
To share effective methods and modalities in the design, development and implementation of CB activities
To provide tools and methods to design, monitor and evaluate the results and impact of CB interventions
To share ideas on how to use project outcomes, results and impact for internal (organizational) learning and external accountability

Organizers:

ITC / NASA / HCPinternational

Speakers from:

GEO-Working Group Capacity Building
GEO Regional Initiatives: AmeriGEOSS, AfriGEOSS
GEO Flagships: GFOI, GEOGLAM, GOS4M, GEOBON
GEO Initiatives: EARSC / EO4GEO, GEO LDN, GEO-Cradle
NASA-SERVIR HUB: ICIMOD / ADPC

Contact:

Joost Teuben (jteuben@geosec.org)

Senior Capacity Building Coordinator; GEO secretariat

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side event

Elevating Citizen Science at GEO

01:30 PM 05:15 PM Room D

See live stream here

Introduction

Building on last year’s successful side event “The role of Citizen Observatories and Crowdsourcing Community in GEOSS,” this meeting will delve more deeply into how the GEO community can benefit from incorporating citizen science (CS) methodologies more widely. Contributors will: (1) discuss activities already underway to advance the established GEO work plan, (2) consider how GEO can strengthen their involvement in and support for citizen science through partnerships and emerging endeavors, and (3) discuss concrete next steps for advancing citizen science through GEO.

Organizers: The Earth Observations and Citizen Science Community Activity: http://www.earthobservations.org/activity.php?id=142

Contacts: Krystal Wilson (SWF) (kwilson@swfound.org); Massimo Craglia (JRC) (Massimo.craglia@ec.europa.eu); Steffen Fritz (IIASA); Aletta Bonn (UFZ); Anne Bowser (WC); Athanasia Tsertou (ICCS); Bente Lilja Bye (BLB); Deborah Long (UD); Joan Maso (CREAF); Lea Shanley (RENCI); Sven Schade (JRC); Uta When (IHE); Valantis Tsiakos (ICCS)

Agenda

13:30 – 13:45: Welcome and Introduction to Community Activity (K. Wilson, SWF)

13:45 – 14:15: Lightening talks—What’s new since the last GEO Meeting?

Moderator (S. Fritz, IIASA)

CS Projects related to environmental policy (Massimo Craglia, JRC)
Case studies on CS and Earth Observations (Krystal Wilson, SWF)
Smart cities and Citizen Science (Evangelos Gerasopoulos, NOA)

Questions & Discussion

14:15 – 15:00: Panel 1: Emerging Initiatives (J. Maso– CREAF)

CS, GEO, and high-level frameworks
- Non-traditional Data Approaches & SDGs (Steffen Fritz, IIASA)
- Safecast: Seven years of lessons learned for citizen science (Azby Brown, Safecast)
- Citizen science combined with legacy data sources in the service of disaster resilience (Angelos Amditis, SCENT)

Questions & Discussion

15:00 – 15:45: Panel 2: Emerging Initiatives (Moderator – TBC)

CS, GEO and Earth Challenge 2020
- Intro to Earth Challenge 2020 (Anne Bowser, WC)
- Data standards and OGC Interoperability Experiment (Joan Maso, CREAF)
- Relevance to Earth observations (Steffen Fritz/IIASA)

Questions & Discussion

15:45 – 16:00: Break

16:00 – 16:45: Panel 3: Next steps for scaling CS within GEO (Moderator – K. Wilson)

What is the role of regional networks?
- Regional GEO Networks and CS (Stefano Nativi, JRC)
Collaboration with other GEO activities
- GBIF and Citizen Science (Tim Hirsch, GBIF)
- GEOGLAM and Citizen Science (Sven Gilliams, VITO)

Questions & Discussion

16:45 – 17:00: Closing Discussion

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side event

Towards integrated in situ ecosystem observations

01:30 PM 05:30 PM Room C2

See live stream here

The existing research infrastructures on terrestrial ecosystems provide throughout the world an extensive network of field stations. Their long-term observation of diverse ecosystems delivers critical knowledge to address complex issues related to climate change and biodiversity loss. Lacking overview and coordination of the distributed physical network has so far hampered standardization and collaboration in globally assessing the state and trajectory of ecosystems, specifically building on integrated RS based and in-situ data.

Therefore, GEO is an ideal framework for inventoried next-generation well instrumented sites, standardized protocols, open data sets, calls for a collaborative scientific approach in working on data from multiple sources. Such frontier science is needed to inform policy-makers & planners responsible for sustainably managing ecosystems. While serving the work program of GEO, this coordination effort will benefit from GEO’s leverage potential through its member countries.

Documents

Draft agenda

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side event

GEO Cold Regions Initiatives

01:30 PM 03:30 PM Room C1

See live stream here

This side event introduces the current works of GEO Cold Regions Initiative for 2017-2019 This initiative has the geographic coverages are Arctic, Antarctic, high-latitude oceans, and Himalaya-third pole and high-mountain areas. This side introduces also coordination of observation for Arctic and Antarctic, and international /national projects.

Agenda

13:30-13:50: GEOCRI idea, plan and current activities (Introduction) (Hiroyuki Enomoto, NIPR/Hannele Savela, University of Oulu/Yubao Qiu, RADI)

13:50-14:10: On the current activities of SAON and the IASC-SAON Arctic Data Committee (Peter Pulsifer, Univ. Colorado, by telepresentation)

14:10-14:30: IEEE North South Pole Initiatives (Siri-Jodha Singh KHALSA, Univ. Colorado)

14:30-14:50: Arctic Data archiving system/contribution to GEO (Hironori Yabuki, NIPR Japan)

14:50-15:10: Enabling Access to Arctic Location Based Information - the Arctic SDI (Heli Ursin, National Land Survey of Finland)

15:10-15:30: Other activities and Discussion

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side event

Advancing the Discovery, Integration, and Reproducibility of Data in GEOSS through Data Sharing

01:30 PM 03:30 PM Room B2

See live stream here

GEO has made significant progress in advancing the accessibility and interoperabiity of data in GEOSS through its efforts to support implementation of the GEOSS Data Sharing and Data Management Principles. However, more needs to be done, especially in the areas of strengthening national capacity for data sharing, facilitating seamless integration of data (including legal interoperability), and improving the trustworthiness of data, metadata, and services. This session provides the opportunity to learn about the new implementation guidelines for the post-2015 GEOSS Data Sharing Principles and a planned survey of national data sharing approaches and capacities. The Data Sharing Working Group welcomes feedback from the GEO community as well as participation in its planned activities.

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side event

Earth observations for Disaster Risk Reduction

02:00 PM 06:00 PM Room E

See live stream here

International commitments such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction commit National governments to create and implement national and local disaster risk reduction strategies. As part of this, they are increasingly having to make decisions on the sources of data, and types of information that they need. The many interconnected systems and approaches available can be enhanced through the use of accessible and interoperable data.

The Sendai Framework is one of the priority engagement areas for GEO, and this session will have two distinct parts. The first “Earth observations for disaster risk reduction” will concentrate on showcasing the activities within the GEO Work Programme which are relevant to disaster risk management. The second part of the session will be forward looking, and will consider “Innovative technologies for disaster risk reduction”, including tools and technologies currently being developed.

Event programme

Earth observations for Disaster Risk Reduction (1400-1550)

Objective: to provide an overview of some of the successes made in GEO Work Programme activities, and priorities towards the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Speakers:

Peeranan Towashiraporn, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
Stefano Salvi, Istituto nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
Marie-Francoise Voidrot - Open Geospatial Consortium
Hiromichi Fukui - Chubu Univsrsity
Alexia Tsouni - BEYOND EO Center of Excellence

Innovative technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction (1600-1800)

Objective: Reporting and measuring of the Sendai Framework requires a new and innovative approach to understanding, measuring and reducing risk. This session will focus on the innovative ways Earth observations are being used, and the technologies that are enabling this change.

Speakers:

Mamoru Miyamoto, International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management
Gilberto Camara, (on behalf of) Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
Pedro Goncalver, TerraDue
David Green, NASA

Please note that there will be a short break between the two sessions.

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Programme Board

11th Programme Board meeting (closed event)

02:30 PM 07:00 PM Room G

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side event

EO in mountain regions - advances, challenges and opportunities

03:30 PM 05:30 PM Room C1

See live stream here

As part of the ‘Sustainable Mountain Development for Global Change’ (SMD4GC) program of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) is leading an effort to assess sustainable mountain development (SMD) using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. Spatially disaggregating SDGs to subnational or transboundary units of space, such as mountain regions, and applying indicator subsets as means to monitor their status, are two emerging considerations relevant for reporting on SMD.

In this session, we propose to examine these and other advances and challenges related to the monitoring and assessment of SDGs in mountain regions though tools and data available via GEO Flagships and Initiatives.

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side event

Regional capacity building for sustainable EO Communication Infrastructure

04:00 PM 05:30 PM Room B2

Collaboration with existing and new GEO contributors from across the world is key to making alternative and sustainable communication resources available to the wider GEO community. Without such collaboration, GEO communities are beholden to using communication networks and services which are not optimised for their needs, demands or budgets.

This session seeks to provide a platform for regional GEOSS contributors to explore and understand the latest developments from these new and existing GEO participating organisations. Especially those involved in developing the physical infrastructure and communication network services, required to make the regional GEOSS platforms a success.

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side event

2nd GEO Communicators Network Roundtable

05:30 PM 06:30 PM Room B2

Building on the ever-expanding GEO Communicators Network, this roundtable is intended to bring together communications professionals from across the GEO community, to share knowledge and experience, identify opportunities for collaboration, and highlight best practices of communicating the impact of Earth observations.

Following a short update on global GEO communications work, participants will be encouraged to share their own work and efforts supporting the GEO community with strategic communications, ask questions and discuss challenges and opportunities.

A more detailed overview of the session will be available shorthly.

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Caucus

Europe Caucus Meeting (closed event)

05:30 PM 07:00 PM Room C2

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Caucus

Asia Oceania Caucus Meeting (closed event)

06:00 PM 07:00 PM Room H

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Caucus

Africa Caucus Meeting (closed event)

06:00 PM 07:00 PM Room C1

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side event

Global Ecosystems and Environment Observation Analysis Research Cooperation (GEOARC)

08:30 AM 12:30 PM Room E

Reports and progress on GEOARC

Aiming at a global scale of ecological and environmental monitoring and analyzing, GEOARC is to propose a protocol framework for Earth Observation data collection, integration, interpretation and analyses to provide useful information and knowledge for public. Not only the data products but also the Annual Report are to be released every year to serve for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030), Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030). An international cooperation network for GEOARC is open for all participants to join in to promote the connection among the data providers, researchers and users. This side event is to present the recent progresses on GEOARC and other related research projects, to communicate and discuss with experts from different areas. The main contents include:

Introduction of the GEOARC Project
Regional Ecosystem Trends Along the Belt and Road
Development of vegetation sensitivity products for climate studies and extreme events
Global Spatiotemporal Distribution of Carbon Source and Sink
Supply Situation of Maize, Rice, Wheat and Soybean
Integrated Global GHG Information System (IG3IS): atmospheric composition measurements in support of data-driven climate change solutions

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side event

DIAS Symposium for SDGs and International Cooperation

08:30 AM 10:30 AM Room D

This symposium aims to:

report the outcomes of DIAS activities for international collaborations and
discuss how to enhance international collaborations among earth observation platforms.

Agenda:

08:30 - 08:45 Introduction of DIAS: Juniji Inoue, the executive director, RESTEC, Japan
08:45 - 09:15 DIAS Platform and services: Masaru Kitsuregawa, the director of NII, Japan
09:15 - 09:35 DIAS Applications for In-Situ data collection and meta data management: Masatoshi Yoshikawa, Kyoto University
09:35 - 09:55 DIAS Applications for Water Resource Management

Toshio Koike, the director of ICHARM, PWRI, Japan
(TBD) We will invite guests and let them introduce the outcomes of DIAS activities for international collaborations.

09:55 - 10:30 Panel Discussion: Facilitator Toshio Koike, the director of ICHARM, PWRI, Japan

Please note that the schedule is subject to change.

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side event

ERA-PLANET: The European network for observing our changing planet (www.era-planet.eu)

08:30 AM 12:30 PM Room H

See live stream here

The session is organized by the ERA-Planet Consortium that has funded SMURBS, GEO-essential, IGOSP and iCUPE projects dealing with Smart Cities & Resilient Societies, Resource Efficiency & Environmental Management, Global change & Environmental treaties and Polar Areas & Natural Resources, respectively. The projects demonstrate how common technological approaches, based on Earth observation data and interoperability, can be applied to different regions and scales to address an array of diverse themes.

The projects are contributing to EuroGEOSS by showcasing the potential of the GEOSS Platform to respond to policy and scientific questions and by addressing the challenges brought by the Sustainable Development
Goals.

Documents

Agenda

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side event

Translating the Paris Agreement into observational needs

08:30 AM 12:30 PM Room C1

The Paris Agreement represents a paradigm shift in climate negotiations, with a strong focus on tracking progress in a transparent way and ultimately feeding into the Global Stocktake. To achieve this, systematic and long-term earth observation data are a necessity. The GEO Carbon and GHG initiative bring together the efforts of the main actors from in situ, satellite, modeling and inventory communities to analyze and meet the needs of the policy-makers at all levels of the UNFCCC process. Together with the Global Carbon Project, GEO-C and its members work on improving carbon budgets, standardizing data streams, and contributing to reduce uncertainties of national inventories.

This side-event is organized as a workshop and puts the needs for observational data at the center of the discussions. Using the analytical framework described in the graph below, the participants will explore some of the essential links between the actors in different groups. After the introductory part, the event will include three modules, each starting with short presentations given by experts who will set the scene for the work of the participants in small groups. The first module will examine the link between services and observational data: what kind of data is needed for the development of existing services or the creation of new ones? Module 2 will focus on the access to this data: how can different types and sources of data be made accessible and linked together? The last module will focus on the specific expectations set by the upcoming 2019 Refinement of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National GHG Inventories or the development of essential variables.

Agenda

8:30 – 8:50 Paris agreement framework (introduction, 20 min)

Welcome and Introduction (Werner Kutsch, ICOS), 10 min
Paris Agreement and Global Stocktaking (Florin Vladu (tbc), UNFCCC), 10 min

8:50 – 10:00 Services based on Earth Observations (module 1, 70 min)

Services (Jean-Noël Thepaut, Copernicus), 10 min
ECMWF, 10 min
40 min group work
10 min group presentations

10:00 – 10:30 Coffee

10:30 – 11:40 Improving access to data (module 2, 70 min)

The role of satellite atmospheric observation to support the Paris Agreement (Prof. Teruyuki Nakajima, JAXA), 10 min
Current status and challenges of GHG observation and data utilization (Dr. Nobuko Saigusa, NIES), 10 min
40 min group work
10 min group presentations

11:40 – 12:20 Technical guidelines and their implications for data (module 3, 40 min)

Expectations of observations from the viewpoint of IPCC TFI (Dr. Kiyoto Tanabe, IPCC) 10 min
GCOS, 10 min
20 min guided discussions

12:20 – 12:30 Wrap-up (10 min)

Documents

Abstract / Agenda

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side event

FY Satellites Service for "The Belt and Road" countries

09:00 AM 11:00 AM Room C2

FY Satellites Service for "The Belt and Road" countries

This event will discuss demands and proposals for FY satellites services to support the disaster risk reduction in "The Belt and Road" countries. CMA will give a brief presentation on the data, products, services and the international emergency support mechanism of FY satellites. All the delegations from "The Belt and Road" countries as well as other countries interested in FY satellites application are welcome.

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ExCom

45th GEO Executive Committee Meeting (closed event)

09:00 AM 05:00 PM Room A

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Exhibition

09:00 AM 08:00 PM Exhibition Hall

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side event

Policy dialogue in support of the GEO LDN initiative

10:30 AM 12:30 PM Room D

We plan to work together to help national and local actors in all countries use Earth Observation (EO) to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG target 15.3). EO applications are at the cutting edge of LDN assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting. The GEO LDN Initiative is a unique stakeholder-driven initiative with a clear policy mandate from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The purpose of this policy dialogue is to bring various stakeholders together to discuss the current and future needs of the end-users and decision-makers in order to develop an effective and coordinated initiative from the Earth observations and geospatial community to assist countries and other actors involved in implementing LDN in setting policy, planning and investment priorities among large and diverse land resource areas.

Programme

Welcome and Introduction (5 min)
Sasha Alexander, Policy Officer, UNCCD

Keynote Presentation (15 min)
Barron Joseph Orr, Lead Scientist, UNCCD
“What have we learned so far – and how far do we need to go”

Special Guest Presentation (10 min)
Antje Hecheltjen, Special Advisor, GIZ - the German Development Agency
“Design together with the user – Applying digital principles in Earth Observation for LDN”

Brief Interventions (5 min each)
Argyro Kavvada, NASA
Alex Held, CSIRO
Greg Scott, UN-GGIM
Chu Ishida, JAXA
Jonathan Ross, GeoScience Australia (tbc)
Omar Seidu, Statistics Ghana (tbc)

Open Discussion

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side event

The role of Geospatial data in achieving the UN SDGs

01:30 PM 05:30 PM Room E

See live stream here

The Role of Geospatial data in the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

In November 2017, OpenStreetMap statistics indicated that there are 4.3 million users with over 3 million changesets per day on OpenStreetMap. This positive impact can not only be attributed to crowdsourcing initiatives by various spatial communities like OpenStreetMap and YouthMappers local chapters, but also to the availability of geospatial software and high resolution satellite imagery. This, therefore, leads to the greater availability of open spatial data with uses in academic research, navigation, emergency response and various applications.

Geospatial information is important in developing solutions to real-world problems since all problems are location-based hence all solutions should be location-specific. This event will include an open discussion on how geospatial information has and can be used in the achievement of the 2030 SDGs and a mapathon.

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side event

Digital Earth Africa

01:30 PM 03:30 PM Room B1

This side event will discuss the proposed Digital Earth Africa initaitive, which will build on the open-source Open Data Cube technology to establish a continental-scale platform that can track changes across Africa in support of support responses to critical issues, including soil and coastal erosion, increasing agricultural productivity, forest and desert development, water quality, and changes to human settlements. The event will bring together the project sponsors, GEO Members from Africa, and the broader GEO community to discuss how to take the initiative to the next step, and how to build on the recently launched Regional Africa Data Cube activity.

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side event

Tracking the Contribution of Nature: Advances in Earth Observation for Ecosystem Accounting (EO4EA)

01:30 PM 03:30 PM Room H

See live stream here

The purpose of the side event is to communicate the recent advances in ecosystem accounting, the EO4EA intiative and how the effort will contribute to sustainable development. The side event will highlight case studies and priorities and opportunities for ongoing applied research. The event will also provide a venue to explore collaborations and synergies between the EO4EA initiative and other GEO programs. The outcomes of the side event will guide research within the focus areas of EO4EA and further identify key GEO partners.

Documents

Event agenda

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side event

Models for University/Public & Private Sector Partnership to Apply Earth Observation in Support of the SDGs

01:30 PM 05:30 PM Room D

This interactive workshop will discuss approaches for collaboration between the academic, public and private sectors to advance the application of earth observation in support of the SDGs. The workshop will have two parts. During the first half, speakers will present examples of collaborative projects in which an academic university team partners with a government or multilateral development organization to build new capacity for earth observation applications.

The second half of the workshop will be a facilitated dialog that gathers insights from participants about their experiences in academic/public/private sector partnerships. The objective of the workshop is to document practices that have been shown to help transfer academic research approaches into practice within national governments, with private sector, local governments and others. The presentations will include examples from projects pursued by the Space Enabled Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program and the government of Benin.

Speakers

William Sonntag, Research Affiliate, MIT Media Lab Space Enabled Research Group

Overview of MIT Space Enabled Research Activities

Mónica Miguel-Lago Executive Secretary EARSC - European Association of Remote Sensing Companies

Building partnership to develop the EO/GI sector skills strategy & Value Chain Based Examples

Chen Jun - National Geomatics Center of China

Development Local SDG Indicators – University and Provincial Partners

Antje Hecheltjen, Special Advisor, GIZ - the German Development Agency

Global Partnership Development – Land Degradation Neutrality Workshop

Graciela Metternicht, Professor, Environmental Management, Policy and Sustainability, Science International Coordinator School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences UNSW Australia

Reporting & Collaboration Platform at a National Level for Public, Academia, Business Initiatives (remote presentation)

Interactive Workshop Session: Attendees will break into small groups for discussion of challenges and examples of activities leading to best possible outcomes. Speakers above have agreed to facilitate the small groups leading with a series of questions about at least the following partnership modalities of research and relationships:

Translation of Academic research to all sectors – lessons that folks have learned moving from theory to real practice – impact and practice – co-exploration;
Government to Government – data reconciliation examples, in particular with statistical practice
Government to Private Sector – government support private sector commercial success and infusion of Earth observation data into commercial practice
Private Sector to Supporting Government - value added service companies provide services that support government decision making on infrastructure, disaster response
Multi-lateral and Global Development Community - Earth observations and other space technology supporting development, humanitarian and social welfare.

Contact: William Sonntag wsonntag@media.mit.edu

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side event

In-Situ observations by European Research Infrastructures for Sustainable Development: The ENVRI approach

01:30 PM 03:30 PM Room C2

Earth observation always is a joint effort between remote sensing measurements by satellites etc. and the fine grained observations by in-situ facilities. ENVRI is the cluster of Environmental Research Infrastructures in Europe which are long term funded to contribute to these vital in-situ measurements of Earth's Environment, stretching out from the deep ocean and solid earth into the highest parts of the atmosphere, measuring life on earth, the state of the atmosphere and oceans and the geophysycal processes that infuence our planet.

In this session, ENVRI wants to demonstrate the relevance and importance of these in-situ data for sustainable development.

Objectives:

To highlight the contribution ENVRI can make to Earth Observation efforts and the GEO community, by offering on a sustainable and long term basis, integrated access to in situ data (experimental and monitoring) from all relevant environmental domains;
To demonstrate the need to combine this in-situ data with remote sensing data and environmental modeling efforts, to achieve better science and more advanced and innovative services to the public, decision makers and companies.

Moderator: Jacco Konijn

13.30 - 13.40: Werner Kutch: ' The European Environmental Research Infrastructures - a sustainable in-situ contribution to GEO'

13.40 - 13.50: Ari Asmi: ' Next steps in the ENVRI community - ENVRI FAIR for FAIR European research infrastructure services'

13.50 - 14.20: Jean-Noël Thépaut: 'Copernicus: Collaboration opportunities and observational requirements to increase the value of the Services'

14.20 - 14.50: Pekka Kolmonen: ' Volcanic eruptions - a major challenge for the detection and determination of ash particles'

14.50 - 15.20: Bob Crabtree: ' Developing a regional model for Decision-Support in Yellowstone: Integration of in situ observations with airborne and spaceborne remote sensing'

15.20 - 15.30: Closing remarks, comments, discussion

Presenter bio's

Dr. Werner Kutsch is Director General of ICOS since March 2014. He is biologist, plant ecologist and ecosystem scientist by education and has worked on ecosystem carbon cycling for 25 years in Europe and Africa. The focus of his work has been for a long time in the comparison of ecosystems after land use change and integrating complex landscapes. He has worked at the Ecosystem Research Centre of University of Kiel, at CSIR in Pretoria, at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena and at ThuÌÂnen, the Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries in Braunschweig.

ICOS is an ESFRI Landmark Research Infrastructure and a legal entity (ERIC) since November 2015. As Director General, Dr. Kutsch is the legal representative and overall coordinator of the Research Infrastructure and currently managing the final internal integration of ICOS. This work comprises internal organisation of the operations of the distributed observational networks and central facilities, on optimizing the internal data flow between the different observational programs of ICOS, on developing the data platform of ICOS (‘Carbon Portal’) which will also serve as an interface to COPERNICUS and GEOSS, and on deepening the cooperation with other RIs. Dr. Kutsch is experienced in data acquisition, post-processing, data analysis and modeling of ecosystem carbon budgets. Integrating ICOS-internal data streams and fostering usage of ICOS RI data for GHG modeling are some of his main goals for the next years. Furthermore, he is very interested in further developing data citation systems.

He is responsible for the external representation of ICOS ERIC and currently leading the development of its future strategy. ICOS aims to be part of European and global integration initiatives that that support the usage of in-situ observations for improving the national inventories on greenhouse gases.

Dr. Ari Asmi has extensive experience on atmospheric sciences, data science, research infrastructure development and collaboration, strategic planning and project management. He is currently Project Director of the ENVRIplus Cluster project, and the coordinator of RISCAPE international research infrastructure landscape project and WP leader in COOP H2020 infrastructure project on international RI collaboration. He is also involved several external projects and initiatives, such as a co-chair of several working groups of the Research Data Alliance, and a number of EU projects since FP5. He is the main author of the ENVRI Environmental Research Infrastructure Strategy document and one of the architects of the ENVRIfair follow up project to ENVRIplus.

Dr. Jean-Noël Thépaut is the Head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and Deputy Director of Copernicus Services at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). C3S is a core Copernicus Service operated by ECMWF on behalf of the European Union. C3S combines observations of the climate system with the latest science to develop authoritative, quality-assured information about the past, current and future states of the climate in Europe and worldwide. Prior to this role he was the Head Data Division and Deputy Director of the Research Department at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) where his section developed world-class data assimilation algorithms for Numerical Weather Prediction, the exploitation of satellite observations from operational and research Earth Observation platforms, and the development and production of state-of-the-art climate re-analyses.

Jean-Noël Thépaut is “Ingénieur Général des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts” and graduated from the French National School of Meteorology. He received his PhD from PARIS-VI University in 1992 in the field of atmospheric data assimilation. He was also involved in the early development of the variational data assimilation systems at ECMWF and Météo-France. Jean-Noël has served on a number of Committees, including the EUMETSAT Mission Expert Team for Meteosat Third Generation and EPS Second Generation, the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office Advisory Board and the ESA Earth’s Science Advisory Committee (ESAC). He is currently co-chair of the World Climate Research Programme Data Advisory Council.

Dr Pekka Kolmonen works as a senior research scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. He is an expert in inverse problems related to radiative transfer. His current work mainly consists of the development of algorithms for the retrieval of aerosol properties using satellite imagery, and the maintenance of resulting aerosol products. He has taken part in several ESA and EU projects exploiting satellite data for the determination of aerosol conditions. He is also involved in aerosol-cloud interaction research and the development of atmospheric correction methods. In the past he has worked with in situ measurements of aerosol properties.

Robert (Bob) L. Crabtree PhD is a systems ecologist who has worked in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for 30 years. He is founder and Chief Scientist at the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC)—a non-profit organization specializing in long-term collaborative research at large spatial (ecosystem) scales to increase the role of science at the decision-making table. He has pioneered a regional model to understand the cause and consequence of natural- and policy-experiments such as floods, wildfires, wolf restoration, land-use change, animal migration, drought, snowpack change, and invasive species spread.

He has authored over 65 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has been principal investigator on over 80 grants (DOI, NASA, NSF, SBIRs, and DoD) that have led to another 100 publications on collaborative projects in Yellowstone and other benchmark ecosystems in North America. He continues to strive to 'translate' the results of ecological research into informed decision-making and on-the-ground conservation action. He has recently been involved with NEON and NASA in designing a regional model for Ecological Forecasting.

Jacco Konijn MSc has over 10 years experience in managing and coordinating European Projects in the field of Biodiversity and Ecosystems Science. Jacco coordinated the LifeWatch (FP7) preparatory project, the CReATIVE-B (FP7) project, a policy coordination action with Biodiversity Research Infrastructures Worldwide, the ENVRI (FP7) cluster project and the GLOBIS-B project, developing workflow solutions for Essential Biodiversity Variables on a global scale, collaborating with sister RIs in biodiversity and ecosystems research across the globe.

Jacco is member of the Executive Board and Work Package leader in the ENVRIplus project, and is involved in the establishment of LifeWatch, an e-Infrastructure, set up as a distributed Research Infrastructure to advance biodiversity and ecosystems research.

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side event

GEOGLOWS Activities: Developing the global scope of Water Prediction Capabilities and Essential Water Variables

01:30 PM 03:00 PM Room C1

This side event is intended to promote discussion related to recent GEOGLOWS progress on Water Prediction Capabilities and Essential Water Variables in the light of the needs of two priority policy areas: SDGs and the Sendai Framework. In addition to providing updates on GEOGLOWS progress on these topics, other groups including AWCI, CI, CEOS, Aquawatch, and IGWCO, would provide updates on their contributions. Time would be devoted to exploring the potential of new technologies such as AI and citizen science in addressing GEOGLOWS issues.

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side event

Democratizing Data Analytics, Communicating Results for SDGs

03:30 PM 05:30 PM Room C2

This workshop will be organized in two parts; first will focus on the UNSD’s implementation of the SDG indicator framework followed by an exploration of available data and analytical tools to support SDG reporting and other critical missions. UN Statistics Division will share their high level vision for the SDG framework and system of systems and showcase the results of their collaborative research initiative, empowering countries to apply spatial data and analytics to support their SDG exploration and reporting. The framework has been adopted by over a dozen countries and was designed to be easily replicated. The framework enables countries to leverage geospatial data and earth observation data and apply spatial analytics to derive and share required reporting data.

The second part of the session will dig into a series of ready to use tools and applications that have the flexibility to integrate various data sources and apply analytics (no coding required) to translate data into actionable information. These data exploratory and analytic tasks are no longer limited to specialized researchers, accessible web based tools are democratizing data access and analytics, empowering broader creation of new information products. To be impactful, this new information must also communicate effectively to stakeholder’s, we will demonstrate real examples of this through interactive maps, applications and story maps addressing the interests of technician’s, citizens and executive decision makers.

At this side event attendees will learn how other countries can participate and quickly adopt this technology, proven scientific methods and applications to aid in SDG reporting.

Organizers: Steve Kopp & Pat Cummens, Esri

Guest Presenter: Greg Scott, UNSD

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side event

Applying the Open Data Cube technology to the Sustainable Development Goals

03:30 PM 06:30 PM Room B1

GEO has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals as a key priority. A range of GEO Flagships, Initiatives and Community Activities are now developing new techniques that can support countries to achieve and track progress towards the SDGs.

This side event will discuss how the GEO community is leveraging, and could further leverage, the open-source Open Data Cube technology to provide an operational platform or 'home' for these techniques. We will showcase examples from around the world of how the Open Data Cube is being used today to both measure and drive progress against the SDGs.

As an open-source project, the Open Data Cube provides a technology that can be tailored to meet local needs, as well as enabling users to contribute their enhancements back to the project to the benefit of others. The Open Data Cube provides a platform for GEO activities to get their work out to the world. This event will also demonstrate the Open Data Cube Sandpit - a new capability that allows anyone, anywhere to create their own demonstration Open Data Cube and trial a growing suite of SDG tools.

Agenda

Opening

1530:1545 - Welcome and goals for the Side Event - Dr Trevor Dhu, Geoscience Australia

1545:1630 - Where is the Open Data Cube up to and where are we going?: Dr Brian Killough, CEOS Systems Engineering Office (SEO)

Country Examples - Open Data Cubes and the SDGs

1630:1700 - Switzerland: Dr Gregory Giuliani, GRID-Geneva & University of Geneva

1700:1730 - Australia: Dr Trevor Dhu, Geoscience Australia

Open Data Cube Sandpit Demonstration

1730:1830 - Demonstration of a "do-it-yourself" Open Data Cube for SDG deployment.

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side event

Energies and mineral resources management: What GEO can bring to SDG 7

03:30 PM 05:30 PM Room C1

The Geo Vision for Energy (GEO-VENER) recognizes the critical importance of energy in working toward sustainable development and poverty eradication. SDG 7 explicitly seeks to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. In achieving SDG7, new linkages and technical innovations are needed that incorporate both renewable energy and the growing demand for mineral resources, including CRMs, induced by the development of renewable energies and the energy transition towards a decarbonated society. This session will explore current applications, user linkages, and uptake in energy management as well as seek ideas for new partnerships.

The goal of the side event will be two-fold: 1) share updates and draw connections between mineral resources and renewable energy as the world strives to achieve SDG 7 and 2) explore how a revitalized GEO-VENER Community of Practice (CoP), particularly in the Asia Pacific region due to the meeting location, can help ensure continued progress and coordination. After a series of presentations, a discussion will be facilitated to learn more about applications and determine a path forward for an engaged GEO-VENER CoP.

Provisional program:

Natasha Sadoff (Battelle) – Introduction to the session (5 minutes)

Stéphane Chevrel (MinPol GmbH, Austria) – Impact of energy transition on minerals resources (20 minutes)

Pierre Lacroix (Unige) – Extractive Essential Variables (EEVs) to quantify the impacts of mineral extraction for Renewable energies (20 minutes)

Natasha Sadoff – The US perspective on GEO-VENER and the link between minerals resource management and renewable energies (20 minutes)

Lionel Ménard – NextGEOSS: Constructing Gridded Data for Grid Operations (20 minutes)

Discussion with the room

Natasha Sadoff and Stéphane Chevrel: concluding remarks.

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side event

EuroGEOSS progress and coordination

05:30 PM 07:00 PM Room E

See live stream here

This session will take you the progress EuroGEOSS has made during its one-year existence.

It will tell you about its achievements, the possibilities that lie ahead for actors in the European field of Earth Observations and it will explore ways and means to integrate EuroGEOSS within the overall Global Earth Observation System of Systems.

Speakers from different backgrounds will tell you about their experience with EuroGEOSS and the future opportunities EuroGEOSS can offer.

Short overview of the session

Marjan van Meerloo (European Commission) – Introduction
Stefan Nilsson (Sweden) - EuroGEOSS from a Member State point of view
Michael Rast (ESA) – EuroGEOSS from the ESA perspective
Nuno Catarino (NextGEOSS) – NextGEOSS applications
Vladimir Crnojevic (Biosense) – Engaging the agricultural community
Jay Pearlman (ATLANTOS) – Continuity of ATLANTOS

- Interactive discussion with the speakers and the audience -

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 1: Opening Session (closed event)

09:00 AM 10:00 AM Main hall

See live stream here

1.1 Welcome from Japan

1.2 Opening Remarks

Mmboneni Muofhe, Deputy Director General Science and Technology, Department of Science and Technology, Republic of South Africa
(Session Chair)
Wei Huang, Vice Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology, China
Patrick Child, Deputy Director-General, Research and Innovation, European Commission
Stephen Volz, Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States of America
Gilberto Camara, Director, GEO Secretariat

1.3 Approval of Agenda

1.4 Approval of Draft Report of GEO-XIV

1.5 Opening Keynote

Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

Speakers

Gilberto Camara

Secretariat Director

Group on Earth Observations

Patrick Child

Deputy Director-General, Research and Innovation

European Commission

Wei Huang

Vice Minister

Ministry of Science and Technology, China

Mami Mizutori

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

Mmboneni Muofhe

Deputy Director General Science and Technology

Department of Science and Technology, Republic of South Africa

Stephen Volz

Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States of America

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Exhibition

Exhibition [ 10:00-10:15 Opening of Exhibition ]

09:00 AM 09:00 PM Exhibition Hall

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 2: Earth Observations in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (closed event)

11:00 AM 12:45 PM Main hall

See live stream here

2.1 This Panel session will present Plenary with an overview of GEO’s activities supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide a view of mandate policy holders and end users that can benefit from these efforts.

Keynote:

Greg Scott, Inter Agency Advisor, United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM)

Moderator:

Satoru Ohtake, Japanese Agency for Science and Technology

Panelists:

Chu Ishida – Co-Lead Earth observations in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG)
Sasha Alexander – Co-Lead GEO Land Degradation Neutrality (GEO LDN)
Paloma Merodio – Vice President, National Organisation for Environment, Mapping and Statistics (INEGI) Mexico
Jun Chen – Co-Lead GEO Land Cover
Izabella Teixeira – Co Chair International Resource Panel (IRP), United Nations Environment Programme

2.2 Panel session outcomes and recommendations

Speakers

Sasha Alexander

Co-Lead, GEO Land Degradation Neutrality (GEO LDN)

UNCCD

Jun Chen

Co-Lead, GEO Land Cover

ISPRS/National  Geomatics Center of China

Chu Ishida

Senior Expert, Space Technology Mission Directorate

Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Paloma Merodio

Vice President

National Organisation for Environment, Mapping and Statistics (INEGI), Mexico

Satoru Ohtake

Japanese Agency for Science and Technology

Izabella Teixeira

Co-Chair

UN Environment International Resource Panel (IRP)

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 3: Earth Observations in Support of the Paris Agreement (closed event)

02:00 PM 03:45 PM Main hall

See live stream here
3.1 This Panel session will present Plenary with an overview of GEO’s activities supporting the Paris Agreement. Currently, several GEO activities focus on mitigation, while there is great potential for Earth observations to also support climate adaptation and activities that limit loss and damage.
Keynote:

Florin Vladu, Adaptation Programme, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Moderator:

Werner Kutsch, ICOS Director, Head of GEO-C Secretariat

Panelists:

Margareta Johansson, INTERACT (Infrastructure project under SCANNET)
Robert Duncan McIntosh, Oceanography Officer, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
Keith Garrett, Senior Geographer, Geospatial Operations,
World Bank Group
Nobuko Saigusa, Director, Center of Global Environmental Research

3.2 Panel session outcomes and recommendations

Speakers

Margareta Johansson

Coordinator, INTERACT

Lund University, Sweden

Werner Kutsch

Director

ICOS

Robert Duncan McIntosh

Oceanography Officer

Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)

Nobuko Saigusa

Director

Center of Global Environmental Research, Japan

Florin Vladu

Manager, Science and Review Subprogramme, Adaptation Programme

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 4: Broadening Engagement (closed event)

04:15 PM 06:00 PM Main hall

See live stream here

4.1 Presentation of Regional Initiatives

4.2 Role of Regional GEOs

4.3 Proposal to create a GEO Associate Category

Speakers

Xingfa Gu

Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Angelica Gutierrez

International Hydrology Lead

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States

Stuart Minchin

Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division

Geoscience Australia

Humbulani Mudau

Chief Director, Space Science and Technology

Department of Science and Technology (DST), South Africa

Gilles Ollier

Head of Sector Earth Observation

European Commission, DG Research & Innovation

IS

Imraan Saloojee

South African National Space Agency (SANSA)

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Social

GEO-XV Plenary reception (closed event)

06:30 PM 09:00 PM

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 5: 2017-2019 GEO Work Programme (closed event)

09:00 AM 11:00 AM Main hall

See live stream here

5.1 GEO Programme Board Report

5.2 GEO Highlights:

GEOGLAM
GEOGLOWS
GOS4M
GEO-LDN

5.3 Update of the 2017-2019 GEO Work Programme

Discussion, Pledges and Approval

5.4 Timing of the Mid-term Evaluation

5.5 Slate of 2019 GEO Programme Board

Speakers

Sasha Alexander

Co-Lead, GEO Land Degradation Neutrality (GEO LDN)

UNCCD

Angelica Gutierrez

International Hydrology Lead

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States

Ian Jarvis

Programme Director

GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM)

Craig Larlee

Monitoring and Evaluation Officer

GEO Secretariat

Mmboneni Muofhe

Deputy Director General Science and Technology

Department of Science and Technology, Republic of South Africa

Osamu Ochiai

Associate Senior Administrator of Satellite Applications and Promotion Center

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Nicola Pirrone

Italian National Research Council (CNR)

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Exhibition

09:00 AM 04:30 PM Exhibition Hall

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 6: New Paradigms for Global Interdisciplinary Science (closed event)

11:30 AM 12:30 PM Main hall

See live stream here
6.1 Michael Obersteiner, Head of Ecosystems Services and Management, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
6.2 Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
6.3 Stuart Minchin, Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division of Geoscience Australia

Speakers

Stuart Minchin

Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division

Geoscience Australia

Michael Obersteiner

Head of Ecosystems Services and Management

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Hiroshi Yamakawa

President

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 7: Earth Observations in Support of the Sendai Framework (closed event)

02:00 PM 03:45 PM Main hall

See live stream here

7.1 This Panel session will present Plenary with an overview of GEO’s activities supporting the Sendai Fraemwork. The four phases of the disaster cycle include prevention, preparedness, response and recovery, currently Earth observations are used less for prevention and preparedness where the biggest savings are in terms of lives and money.

Moderator:

Toshio Koike, Director International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (iCHARM)

Panelists:

Renato U. Solidum, Undersecretary for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, Department of Science and Technology, Philippines
Nate Smith, Director, Technology and Innovation, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)
Lin Hui, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Joy Jacqueline Pereira, Professor and Principal Research Fellow SEADPRI University Kabangsaan Institute for Environment and Development
Colin Tukuitonga, Director General, Secretariat of the Pacific Community

7.2 Panel session outcomes and recommendations

Speakers

Lin Hui

Director, Institute of Space and Earth Information Science

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Toshio Koike

Director

International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (iCHARM)

Joy Jacqueline Pereira

Professor and Principal Research Fellow

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Southeast Asia Disaster Prevention Research Initiative (SEADPRI-UKM)

Nate Smith

Director, Technology and Innovation

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)

Renato U. Solidum

Undersecretary for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

Department of Science and Technology, Philippines

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 8: The Future of GEO (closed event)

04:00 PM 05:00 PM Main hall

See live stream here

8.1 A strategy for a results-oriented GEOSS

Speakers

Gilberto Camara

Secretariat Director

Group on Earth Observations

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Plenary

GEO-XV - Session 9: GEO Business (closed event)

05:00 PM 06:00 PM Main hall

See live stream here

9.1 2017 Financial Statements and Audit Report

9.2 Proposed 2019 GEO Trust Fund Budget

Pledges and approval

9.3 Update of the GEO Rules of Procedure

9.4 Announcement of 2019 Lead Co-Chair and Slate of 2019 Executive Committee Members

9.5 2019 Ministerial and GEO-XVI Announcements

9.6 Any Other Business

9.7 Session Outcomes

9.8 Closing Remarks

Mmboneni Muofhe, South Africa Co-Chair
Wei Huang, China Co-Chair
Patrick Child, European Commission Co-Chair
Steve Volz, United States of America Co-Chair
Gilberto Camara, GEO Secretariat Director
Japan

Speakers

Gilberto Camara

Secretariat Director

Group on Earth Observations

Patrick Child

Deputy Director-General, Research and Innovation

European Commission

Douglas Cripe

Senior Scientific Advisor

GEO Secretariat

Wei Huang

Vice Minister

Ministry of Science and Technology, China

Stuart Minchin

Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division

Geoscience Australia

Mmboneni Muofhe

Deputy Director General Science and Technology

Department of Science and Technology, Republic of South Africa

Stephen Volz

Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States of America

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ExCom

46th GEO Executive Committee Meeting (closed event)

09:00 AM 05:00 PM Room A

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side event

Land Degradation Neutrality Initiative general meeting

10:00 AM 01:00 PM Room K

Dear GEO community

Here is a quick update on progress towards adopting the new GEO Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Initiative to support end-users and decision-makers for more rational land management and planning.

First the LDN Initiative is part of the update to the 2017-2019 GEO Work Programme and we would like to invite those that are interested to participate in its first Steering Committee meeting to be held on 02 November 2018 at 10 am in Room K located in the Kyoto International Conference Center.

Second, the LDN Initiative will kick off three working groups that will require the diverse skills and expertise of the GEO community: (1) capacity building, (2) data quality standards, and (3) data analytics. Please attend the meeting on 02 November to learn more and consider participating.

Last, through the GEO secretariat, the LDN Initiative is issuing a call for secondments to support the Steering Committee, working groups and their user-driven work plans. Those country members and POs that would like explore this exciting opportunity are encourage to contact the GEO Secretariat (secretariat@geosec.org).

A brief summary of the LDN Initiative can be found on page 100 of the updated GEO Work Programme.

https://www.earthobservations.org/activity.php?id=149

Best regards GEO Secretariat

Documents

Schedule

Can we have a GEO Initiative on a common approach to Essential Variables?

Identifying, communicating and delivering the value of Earth observations - a regional approach

So many maps, so little time: Making informed decisions in high-risk environments

GEOSS EVOLVE - "Unlock Earth Observations" towards Knowledge

Asia Oceania Day: "Fostering synergy among Regional GEOSS Initiatives"

Towards result-oriented GEOSS with NextGEOSS' user-centric approach

Earth Observation Applications for the Sustainable Development Goals: GEO Work Programme Efforts and Opportunities for Scaling Successful Methods

Detecting and Analysing Changes and Future Scenarios in Protected Areas: from ECOPOTENTIAL to GEO ECO

EU Africa cooperation in Earth Observation

An innovative impact-driven approach on Capacity Building (CB) for GEO flagships, thematic and regional initiatives and community activities

Elevating Citizen Science at GEO

Towards integrated in situ ecosystem observations

GEO Cold Regions Initiatives

Advancing the Discovery, Integration, and Reproducibility of Data in GEOSS through Data Sharing

Earth observations for Disaster Risk Reduction

11th Programme Board meeting (closed event)

EO in mountain regions - advances, challenges and opportunities

Regional capacity building for sustainable EO Communication Infrastructure

2nd GEO Communicators Network Roundtable

Europe Caucus Meeting (closed event)

Asia Oceania Caucus Meeting (closed event)

Africa Caucus Meeting (closed event)

Global Ecosystems and Environment Observation Analysis Research Cooperation (GEOARC)

DIAS Symposium for SDGs and International Cooperation

ERA-PLANET: The European network for observing our changing planet (www.era-planet.eu)

Translating the Paris Agreement into observational needs

FY Satellites Service for "The Belt and Road" countries

45th GEO Executive Committee Meeting (closed event)

Exhibition

Policy dialogue in support of the GEO LDN initiative

The role of Geospatial data in achieving the UN SDGs

Digital Earth Africa

Tracking the Contribution of Nature: Advances in Earth Observation for Ecosystem Accounting (EO4EA)

Models for University/Public & Private Sector Partnership to Apply Earth Observation in Support of the SDGs

In-Situ observations by European Research Infrastructures for Sustainable Development: The ENVRI approach

GEOGLOWS Activities: Developing the global scope of Water Prediction Capabilities and Essential Water Variables

Democratizing Data Analytics, Communicating Results for SDGs

Applying the Open Data Cube technology to the Sustainable Development Goals

Energies and mineral resources management: What GEO can bring to SDG 7

EuroGEOSS progress and coordination

GEO-XV - Session 1: Opening Session (closed event)

Exhibition [ 10:00-10:15 Opening of Exhibition ]

GEO-XV - Session 2: Earth Observations in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (closed event)

GEO-XV - Session 3: Earth Observations in Support of the Paris Agreement (closed event)

GEO-XV - Session 4: Broadening Engagement (closed event)

GEO-XV Plenary reception (closed event)

GEO-XV - Session 5: 2017-2019 GEO Work Programme (closed event)

Exhibition

GEO-XV - Session 6: New Paradigms for Global Interdisciplinary Science (closed event)

GEO-XV - Session 7: Earth Observations in Support of the Sendai Framework (closed event)

GEO-XV - Session 8: The Future of GEO (closed event)

GEO-XV - Session 9: GEO Business (closed event)

46th GEO Executive Committee Meeting (closed event)

Land Degradation Neutrality Initiative general meeting

Speakers

Sasha Alexander

31 October

GEO-XV - Session 2: Earth Observations in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (closed event)

01 November

GEO-XV - Session 5: 2017-2019 GEO Work Programme (closed event)

Gilberto Camara

31 October

GEO-XV - Session 1: Opening Session (closed event)

01 November

GEO-XV - Session 8: The Future of GEO (closed event)

01 November

GEO-XV - Session 9: GEO Business (closed event)

Jun Chen

31 October

GEO-XV - Session 2: Earth Observations in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (closed event)

Patrick Child

31 October

GEO-XV - Session 1: Opening Session (closed event)

01 November

GEO-XV - Session 9: GEO Business (closed event)

Douglas Cripe

01 November

GEO-XV - Session 9: GEO Business (closed event)

Keith Garrett