The Full Picture

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Developing Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term

Environmental Studies (DAMOCLES) project is focused on the effect of

global warming on the Arctic region, and the Global Earth Observation

and Monitoring of the atmosphere (GEOMON) project measures and

models the fluxes of carbon dioxide through the atmosphere.

The first actions to be supported under the Environment theme

of FP7 will deal with priority areas of GEOSS, namely monitoring

of the carbon cycle at global level; contributing to a global biodi-

versity observation system; monitoring the ocean interior, seafloor,

and sub-seafloor; developing a global soil observing system; build-

ing a geo-resource information system for Africa; improving

observing systems for water resource management, and developing

GEONETCast applications for developing countries.

The coordinated development of data and data processing systems,

data archiving, and spatial data infrastructures for effective data

updating and exchange should be continued. Finally, modelling and

prediction capabilities will need to be improved and expanded so

that a new generation of models is made available to ensure advance-

ment in predicting high-impact events.

Information and communication technology

– In the

field of information and communication technology

applied to environment management, the main research

objectives are to design tools and systems architectures

for improved technical interoperability, and to develop

or demonstrate collaborative systems for environmen-

tal management.

Many projects co-funded under the FP6 programme

are directly contributing to some of the ongoing GEOSS

tasks, for example on Sensor Web Enablement (SWE).

This technique can be described as follows: “With

advances in communications technology and ground-

based in situ technologies it is now feasible to consider

webs of sensors on all types of platforms with rapid

access for observations. This technology has been devel-

oped under the names of sensor webs and sensor

networks. A sensor web is a system of distributed sensors

that can be deployed to monitor and explore new envi-

ronments.”

Demonstration projects such as OSIRIS, led by indus-

try, apply this technique to innovative in situ monitoring

systems, in particular based on intelligent low-cost

sensors, self-organizing reconfigurable sensor networks

and sensor web architectures for environmental data

acquisition and integration. In addition, modern tools

are developed for public safety communication, includ-

ing work on the integration of alert systems,

communication to and from the citizen and rapidly

deployable emergency telecommunications systems.

Legal framework

The Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe

(INSPIRE) directive adopted by the EU in 2006 provides

measures that address exchange, sharing, access and use

of interoperable spatial data and services in Europe.

INSPIRE will also contribute to establishing global stan-

dards for geospatial data and information.

INSPIRE is a European directive that establishes the

legal framework for setting up and operating an

Infrastructure for spatial information in Europe, based

on infrastructures operated by member states. The

purpose of such infrastructure is to support formula-

tion, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the

EU’s environmental policies and overcome major barri-

ers still impeding availability and accessibility of

pertinent data: inconsistencies in data collection with

gaps and duplication, incomplete documentation of

available data, incompatibility of spatial data sets and

services, lack of interoperability of infrastructures,

cultural, institutional, financial and legal blockage

preventing data sharing.

The collaborative process leading to the formulation

of the directive was based upon the following principles:

• Spatial data should be collected once and maintained

where most appropriate

• Seamless combination from different sources across

the EU should be possible

• Data collected at one level should be shared with

other levels of government

Source: GMES, PROMOTE Projects

GMES Atmosphere Core Service

Air quality over Europe, showing the impact of large urban and

industrial concentrations

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