The Full Picture

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toes,” says Terry Newby, program manager at the

Agricultural Research Council, Republic of South Africa.

GEONETCast also allows decision makers to operate on

a larger scale. “We will now be able to get a global picture

of data sets, which can really be useful in how we manage

our biological diversity. It will begin, in my view, to prob-

ably resolve some of the big debates that we have at the

global level,” says Philemon Mjwara, director-general of

the Department of Science and Technology, Republic of

South Africa.

The pulse of the planet

Every body needs a nerve system to sense its condition and

to communicate messages to its decision-making centre so

it can make adjustments, take remedial measures and plan

for survival. The Earth itself is no exception to this neces-

sity. Fortunately, it now has GEOSS with its many

component sensor and processing systems. The Earth now

also has GEONETCast to transmit that information to deci-

sion makers around the globe.

GEONETCast is timely and in time to help us decide

about our future:

• GEONETCast provides information essential to protect-

ing lives and more effectively managing a world of

resources

• GEONETCast helps to take the pulse of the planet

• GEONETCast allows for faster decision-making and

policy responses.

able cost to both providers and users. Furthermore, it was possible

to improve access by broadcasting the information of complementary

delivery systems, and thereby extending the reach of those systems.

GEONETCast has significant potential to enhance access to a wide

range of information to users who may not previously have had access

to such resources. GEONETCast is important from a diversity of data

perspective, as it will deliver information on all nine societal benefit

areas of GEO. It is equally important from a technical disparities

perspective, since GEONETCast will be able to reach developing

country users with limited or no access to high speed Internet. The

GEO capacity building strategy identifies GEONETCast as a significant

technology to enable sustainable infrastructure.

GEONETCast’s impact

“It is all about public health, quality of life, knowing what the state of

the environment is, knowing what the state of the land surface is, what

the state of the seas is. Being able to ‘take the pulse of the planet’” says

Michael Williams, control centre head at EUMETSAT.

GEOSS systems track hurricanes from their earliest formation, display

temperature trends in the oceans and scan entire continents for vegeta-

tion density. They predict where livestock will go hungry, which areas

will be hit with erosion, and which regions will suffer an outbreak of

disease. GEONETCast’s import and impact is that it delivers this infor-

mation to policy-makers in near real-time to help themmake informed

decisions.

Decisionmakers can focus on specifics by operating on localized scale:

“One thinks of things like malaria and the pools of standing water and

the moist conditions which are conducive to the breeding of mosqui-

GEONETCast transmits information to decision makers around the globe so that we may decide about our future

GEOSS C

OMPONENTS

– D

ISSEMINATION

NFORMATION

YSTEMS