Data policy and management issues for integration of information: The gmes projects and plans

Abstract

The Global Monitoring of Environment and Security (GMES) is the next big joint programme of the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA), supported by national and international organizations. GMES has now consolidated a series of geoinformation services, amongst them those delivering timely and critical space based geoinformation for the security of the European citizens. This security aspect covers humanitarian aid, monitoring of natural disasters and preventing crime/terrorists acts. Very high resolution (VHR) optical and SAR space imagery is critical for this service, as well as the integration of existing cartographic information. Though, European nations will deliver VHR data from their national satellite systems (e.g., TerraSAR, Pleiades, Cosmo) also non-European and specifically US private VHR data is and will stay to be a critical source of space-based information. Besides the bilateral/multilateral negotiations on the exchange of military data, GMES is now establishing both technical capabilities for a seamless access to the tasking and catalog capabilities of national systems as well as the background data policy, which allows exchanging this information. This information exchange shall be fostered amongst European partners as well as on the global scale in the "Group on Earth Observation" (GEO). © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.