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Category: Earth Observation News

Questions on GMES extracted from the preparation of the ESA Council at Ministerial level

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– Should GMES become the European participation to GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), decided on the Earth Summit in Brussels?

– Should Europe try to get independence in space borne data sources or should it only complement what is available e.g. in the US?

– Should we use another joint undertaking to implement GMES or should we use other cooperation models foreseen in the framework agreement (ESA as implementing agency of the EU)?

– Is the GMES financing model proposed the right one? (ESA pays phases A+B, mixed funding for phases C/D and EC funding after the first satellites including operation)

– Are the requirements defined so far, coming from the 12+4 initial GMES services and from the analysis of the data gaps in Europe the right ones?

Important dates to have in mind:

– High level on Space Policy Group- 3rd week March

– Joint Secretariat issues (EU Council, Coreper and ESA bodies) – beginning
April

– EU Council process documents- 3rd week April

– Draft joint document- end April

– High level on Space Policy Group, HLSPG, examine documents- beginning May

– Joint Secretariat revised draft documents- 2nd week May

– Research working party processes- 17 May

– Coreper I, finalised draft joint document- 27 May

– ESA processed finalised draft joint document- end May

– Second Space Council- 7 June

More information

Socio-Economic Benefits Analysis of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)
Published on

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP along with ESYS Consulting plc and DNV
(the Consortium) have been contracted by the European Space Agency
(ESA), in cooperation with the European Commission (EC), to perform a
socio-economic benefits study of Global Monitoring for Environment and
Security (GMES), an initiative being developed jointly by the EC and
ESA, with the objective of establishing by 2008 a European capacity for
global monitoring of environment and security.

The objectives of the study are to:
Characterise and evaluate the overall benefits and impact resulting from GMES implementation;
Produce a political and strategic view of the benefits and impacts due to GMES implementation;
Evaluate benefits against cost envelopes from an economic perspective;
Understand the variation in benefit resulting from different implementation levels for GMES;

The Consortium will be undertaking a comprehensive consultation
exercise during the spring and summer of 2005 and will be contacting
key GMES stakeholders shortly. We welcome input from the Earth
Observation community on the perceived benefits of GMES and the
mechanisms by which these benefits can be demonstrated and quantified.
The Consortium can be contacted by email.