EuroGEOSS

	EuroGEOSS: a European approach to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems is launched.
	How the Earth’s environment is changing, and what consequences this will have for human civilisation, are among the fundamental questions of our time. Given the global scale of the problem, and the relations among physical phenomena, the biosphere, and human activities, an international effort is underway to develop a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (abbreviated GEOSS).
	On May 6th the European Commission launched a new research project  to contribute to this global effort. With a funding of €6 million over a 3 year period from the 7th Research & Development Framework Programme, the EuroGEOSS project will develop, link, and make globally available the EU information systems addressing forests, droughts, and biodiversity.
	Through the program, the EuroGEOSS project will contribute to an increased capacity for scientists from different disciplines to work together, share data and models with less effort. This collaboration will develop better understanding and better predictions of environmental phenomena and their social impacts. While the program is focused initially on the European information infrastructure, the developments have global implications for advanced monitoring of the health of our planet. Improved knowledge is crucial to underpin action by government, and industry, but also by individuals, who can make a real difference through changes in their daily activities. For this reason, EuroGEOSS will exploit the latest development of the Web that allow for social networks and communities to contribute information, and share their knowledge on their local environment. For example, geo-wiki.org is a system that allows communities of volunteers to help improve the quality of global land cover maps, which are fundamental for improved environmental models. Similarly, Flickr.com is a popular website for individuals to map and share their photographs, potentially providing important evidence of current land uses. This can also be of direct support during natural hazards such as forest fires. EuroGEOSS will harness these new developments and integrate them with information systems from official sources, thus improving our capability to monitor the state of the environment.
	EuroGEOSS includes 22 partners from 10 countries, and is co-ordinated by BRGM (France), and the European Commission Joint Research Centre.

Grégoire Dubois from JRC, presented the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA)” and relationship with EuroGEOSS at the "Planet under Pressure 2012 Conference in London (March 26-26,2012), more information here.
EuroGEOSS web seminar  on Biodiversity is on Wed. April 4th at 16:00 CET (GMT+2) “Setting up web services for biodiversity: the case of the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA)”, will be presented by Grégoire Dubois  and Michael Schultz from JRC.        More details here.
Watch out!  Focus on EuroGEOSS outputs and the Broker .  In "A new tool to help monitor the environment", the brokering approach and leading role in GEOSS  is exposed. Read more  (“The Institute”- IEEE members’ newsletter).
EuroGEOSS web seminar  on Drought -  “ Assessing the capability of multi-scale drought datasets to quantify drought severity and to identify drought impacts" by Sergio Vicente Serrano, will soon be available online.
"EuroGEOSS, Advancing the vision for GEOSS" conference held in Madrid, Spain  from Jan 24-27, 2012, was very successful. Feedback from the participants (around  200 attendees), keynotes and presenters was very positive and all agreed on EuroGEOSS major contribution to inject new life into GEOSS and support to the System of Systems approach.  Conference website at  www.eurogeoss2012.eu
EuroGEOSS Broker :    "GEO-VIII Plenary sets scene for 2012-2015 and beyond" : GEO publishes an article describing the important role played by the EuroGEOSS Broker for the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI). Discover here!
New ! Check for EuroGEOSS Forest Video here
EuroGEOSS at GEO VIII Plenary in Istanbul (16-18 Nov 2011) Singled out as FP7 flagship project contributing to GEOSS progress and the implementation of Data Sharing principles through a major innovative tool: the Broker. Read more
GEOSS for Biodiversity Video on You Tube ! The video describes the role of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Common Infrastructure in supporting policy and research related to biodiversity. It shows an example of using global data and models available on the web to identify unique habitats in Africa in need of protection. With highlights on the role of EuroGEOSS broker and a focus on the brokering approach.
Miscellaneous   SDI Magazine is publishing an article describing EuroGEOSS progress and developments (Drought and Forestry IOC, broker), expected final results and their potential impact and use.(more to read)  Progress and outputs of EuroGEOSS project are related in an Earthzine article, featuring EuroGEOSS technical coordinator Massimo Craglia. (read more here) INSPIRE Conference 2011 and workshop on Interoperability of INSPIRE, GMES and GEOSS. more details here! The European Open Source Metadata Editor (EUOSME) is a web application to create INSPIRE-compliant metadata in any of 22 European languages. It has been developed by the Joint Research Centre as part of the EuroGEOSS project (www.eurogeoss.eu). It is therefore a research outcome and not a production tool (Read more). The EuroGEOSS Forum is now available for discussions on forestry, biodiversity, drought or any EuroGEOSS topics! Get answers to your questions from experts.  A workshop on Drought, its impacts and mitigation is planned for April 2011 in Sydney, Australia. This international workshop will be immediately prior to the International Symposium for Remote Sensing of the Environment, also in Sydney. (www.isrse34.org) Language problems? Large computer databases don’t communicate well either. For decisions across Europe, interoperable information is essential. EuroGEOSS is developing a “broker” to facilitate the exchange of such information... (Read more)  Large differences occur between existing global land cover maps. These have a significant impact on the ability to model and predict impacts on our environment. A wiki was created to encourage community inputs by international attendees of the IGASRSS 2010 conference in Hawaii. More than 2000 validations were received in a two week period! (Read more) EuroGEOSS partners are examining the societal impacts of better information for decision makers. In a systematic approach, IIASA looked at the costs and benefits of actions. (Read more)

Check for details and access EuroGEOSS innovative tool here: www.eurogeoss-broker.eu.