International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE) and the International Union of Geological Science (IUGS) are accepted as new members of Group on Earth Observations (GEO) at the 6th plenary session of GEO held on Nov 17-18, 2009 in Washington, adding the GEO members to 83 countries (including EU) and 58 international organizations.
Applications from 7 organizations are reviewed and ISDE application is recommended by GEO executive committee to the meeting and is adopted unanimously.
Located in Beijing, ISDE is a non-political, non-governmental and not-for-profit international academic organization, initiated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and organized by experts and scholars from all over the world.
ISDE’s accession to GEO will further better development of global earth observation system of systems, improve cooperation and exchange between international organizations and prepare a broader international stage for future development of ISDE.
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| Issues concerning progress and main points of GEOSS, preparations for GEO ministerial summit 2010, strategic objectives, monitoring and evaluation of GEOSS and annual updating of work plan during 2009 and 2011 are discussed at the meeting. |
GEO is an inter-governmental organization coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). As 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.
GEOSS advocates the establishment of comprehensive, coordinative and sustainable global earth observation system of systems to achieve better cognition of the earth system, including the weather, climate, ocean, atmosphere, waters, land, geodynamics, natural resources and ecosystem as well as natural and man-made disasters, and explicitly points out 9 fields that will benefit from activities of GEOSS.
About 500 representatives from all member countries and international organization attended this meeting. 17 issues and 28 documents are addressed and implemented on an individual basis; some important issues concerning progress and main points of GEOSS, preparations for GEO ministerial summit 2010, strategic objectives, monitoring and evaluation of GEOSS and annual updating of work plan during 2009 and 2011 are discussed and prepared.
The exhibition of the 6th GEO plenary session was held during the meeting, highlighting the contributions to realization of GEOSS by all presenting member countries and organizations. ZHENG Guoguang, GEO cochairman, GEO chief representative of China and director of China Meteorological Administration, heading a delegation composed of members from Ministry of Science and Technology, National Defense Technology Industry Bureau, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Seismology Bureau and China Meteorological Administration, and GUO Huadong, as an official representative of Chinese delegation, attended the meeting.
Chinese delegation held GEO China Exhibit where the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences is the key exhibiter who reveals its competency and achievements in the field of earth observation and digital earth.
