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Implementing GEOSS in Germany
Jörn Hoffmann, D-GEO Secretariat, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Space Agency
F
rom the beginning Germany has been actively engaged in
building the foundations of the Global Earth Observing
System of Systems (GEOSS). Germany believes that coor-
dinating earth observation (EO) activities internationally is a
useful and effective means for improving knowledge about the
state and processes of the earth system. While this improved
understanding can benefit society in many ways, it is without
an equal for defining knowledge-based environmental policies,
in particular with respect to climate change.
The value that GEOSS can bring to the global society has been recog-
nized by the German government, which has committed to support
GEO in implementing GEOSS. In addition the government have real-
ized that GEOSS also opens specific opportunities for providers and
users of EO information in Germany. The German government has
therefore placed the responsibility to represent Germany in GEO and
lead the national implementation of GEOSS with the Federal
Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs (BMVBS). This
organization also oversees several important federal agencies respon-
sible for various aspects of earth observation. These include the
German Meteorological Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD), the
Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (Bundesamt
für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie, BSH), the Federal
Institute of Hydrology (Bundesanstalt für
Gewässerkunde, BfG), and the Federal Office for
Building and Regional Planning (Bundesamtes für
Bauwesen und Raumordnung, BBR).
These agencies also host prominent GEOSS-relevant
service centres in Germany and are therefore important
national contributors to GEOSS. The responsibility of
BMVBS thus underlines the German expectation that
GEOSS will not only benefit research projects, but also
support operational agencies in fulfilling their mandate
and directly serve German citizens.
To identify national priorities and recommend concrete
steps towards implementing GEOSS at the national level
BMVBS has set up an advisory group (D-GEO), which
comprises members from key federal agencies whose
mandate includes the provision, interpretation or use of
earth observation information. Since its creation this
group has worked on identifying the key institutions
concerned at the national level and the level of the federal
Precipitation stations in the GRDC database with 10-year data record
Spatial distribution of monthly in situ precipitation stations with at least ten years of data in GPCC Data base (Total number of stations in July 2006: 43028)
Source: Global Precipitation Climatology Centre
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