GEO Task US-09-01a Home Page

This activity has established a process for identifying critical Earth observation priorities common to many of the nine GEO societal benefit areas, involving scientific and technical experts, taking account of socio-economic factors, and building on the results of existing systems’ requirements development processes. GEO has used the results of this activity to determine, prioritize, and communicate gaps in current and future Earth observations to support discussions on potential investment opportunities.

The nine societal benefit areas (SBA) are: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate, Disasters, Ecosystems, Energy, Health, Water, and Weather. (The task team divided the Health SBA into three parts: Health - Aeroallergens, Health-Air Quality and Health-Infectious Disease.)

The GEO User Interface Committee (UIC) managed this task. The UIC developed a nine-step process to identify the critical Earth observation priorities within each SBA. The UIC has used this information to determine the priority observations common across the nine SBAs.

For each SBA, there was an Analyst and an Advisory Group that conducted this nine-step process. The Analysts served as the point of contact to manage the process. The respective Advisory Groups (experts from developed and developing countries) assisted the Analyst to identify documents, assess analyses, and review findings.

The process for each SBA focused on performing a meta-analysis of Earth observation priorities already identified in existing, publicly-available documents from the last decade. The task harvested and analyzed information from a representative sampling of documents (e.g., reports, workshop summaries, project summaries, etc.) that GEO Member Countries and Participating Organizations have published or released. The task seeked to ensure an international breadth of documents in this meta-analysis, including significant representation from developing countries.

There are links to the individual SBA webpages below. Each page includes information about the Analyst, members of the Advisory Group, the list of documents used, and other information.