18/02/2005 - Sixty nations
and forty international organisations have
agreed to a ten year plan for a global earth
observation system.
The plan, which has been eighteen months in
preparation, was endorsed by this week's Ministerial
Summit in Brussels.
The Minister for the Environment and Heritage,
Senator Ian Campbell, has welcomed the completion
of the plan.
"This is a great step forward in international
cooperation to monitor the state of our planet,"
Senator Campbell said.
Known as the Global Earth Observation System
of Systems (GEOSS), it will build on a number
of existing global observing systems, such
as the World Meteorological Organisation's
World Weather Watch, to provide a much more
comprehensive and integrated approach to earth
observation.
GEOSS will include both ground-based and
space-based observing systems, which will
monitor the state of the atmosphere, ocean,
land surface and solid earth. The data will
be widely exchanged among all countries. A
particular feature that GEOSS will aim to
achieve is the exchange of data between previously
independent systems.
"This system will be of great benefit
to Australia. We already benefit greatly from
international cooperation in weather and climate
observations under the World Meteorology Organisation.
The new GEOSS, when fully implemented, will
extend these benefits to many other socio-economic
sectors, including disaster mitigation, health,
energy, biodiversity and agricultural production,"
Senator Campbell said.
Australian experts from many areas of government,
including the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian
Greenhouse Office, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia,
have contributed to the design of the new
system.
"We have helped ensure that GEOSS is
built on existing global observing systems
and that it does not duplicate or compete
with what is already in place," Senator
Campbell said.
Reliable earth observation is essential for
support of a whole range of essential information
systems, especially warning systems for tropical
cyclones, severe storms, floods and drought.
It will also be critical to support the new
tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean
which Australia and other countries have agreed
to put in place the Boxing Day disaster.
"I congratulate all who have participated
in the development of this visionary plan,"
Senator Campbell said.
"The challenge now will be to maintain
the momentum and ensure that the system is
progressively implemented over the coming
decade."
