Observing the Oceans for the Benefit of Society

In its role as a leader in the marine community, POGO established Ocean United, an informal grouping of organisations in the oceanographic arena, and frequently acts as spokesman on its behalf. POGO is working towards a global vision of ocean observation, jointly with other members of Ocean United  within the umbrella of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).  

GEO was launched in response to calls for action by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the G8 (Group of Eight) leading industrialized countries. These high-level meetings recognized that international collaboration is essential for exploiting the growing potential of Earth observations to support decision making in an increasingly complex and environmentally stressed world.

GEO is a voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations. It provides a framework within which these partners can develop new projects and coordinate their strategies and investments. As of June 2010, GEO’s Members include 81 Governments and the European Commission. In addition, 58 intergovernmental, international, and regional organizations with a mandate in Earth observation or related issues have been recognized as Participating Organizations.

GEO is coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), on the basis of a 10-Year Implementation Plan (see below) for the period 2005 to 2015. The Plan defines a vision statement for GEOSS, its purpose and scope, expected benefits, and the nine “Societal Benefit Areas” (natural disasters, human health and well being, energy resources, changing climate, water resources, marine ecosystems, marine biodiversity, fisheries and agriculture).

GEO Activities

POGO participated in the Ministerial Summit of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) in Cape Town in November 2007, and contributes in various other ways to the activities of GEO, such as in capacity building. For the Summit, POGO produced a short video, in layman’s language, highly praised for its impact. 

Click here to read more about the summit and download the agenda and material that was presented. 

POGO also helped to fund the meeting at which the Latin-American network of bio-optical oceanographers called Antares was born and led subsequently to the formation of a global-scale analogue, ChloroGIN, now an important element of GEO.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
GEOSS Implementation Plan	GEOSS 10-year Implementation Plan	143 Kb
GEOSS Work Plan Targets	GEOSS Implementation Plan -Table of Work Plan Targets	160 Kb
A section on GEO and GEOSS	Extract from Gleneagles Plan of Action following G8 Summit in Scotland, 6-8 July 2005	61 Kb