GEO-IDEA

The overall objective is to provide the European Environment Agency (EEA) with expertise within the domain of in-situ Earth observation and geospatial data sharing and management, with focus on data relevant to EU and global climate adaptation policies and initiatives, while ensuring the corresponding links with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). We will performing inter alia promotion and/or implementation of the GEO Data Sharing and Management Principles (e.g. data gathering,  metadata  creation,  analysis  of  licenses,  data  accessibility  and  usability),  collection,  description, management and validation of data requirements, development of standard methodologies, gap analysis, best practices and recommendations, drafting of technical reports, organisation of workshops and consultations, and supporting EEA in meetings and relevant working groups.
Main tasks of the project are:

Task 1: Support to GEO data sharing and management practices and initiatives 

The objective of this task is to coordinate, harvest synergies, and facilitate knowledge exchange across GEO, EuroGEO, and Copernicus’ data sharing and management activities to create the basis for efficient data access solutions and avoid duplication of work. Focus is on promoting free, full, open and timely access to in-situ data, foster cooperation with national data providers, and raise awareness of the technical, organizational, and resource implications of the implementation of data sharing principles with a specific focus on GEO and EuroGEO related activities. This includes support and consultancy as regards as “Interoperability and in-situ data quality requirements” as expressed by the project showcases, as well as from EuroGEO and GEO selected applications in order to collate, analyse and store information with a common methodological approach. This will enable to identify in-situ data gaps and empowering elements to facilitate data sharing. The task will contribute to the strategic guidance regarding the evolution of European and international observing networks, including recommendations on common needs for new or improved in-situ systems, strengthening collaboration with networks and across projects.

Task 2: Contribute to the further implementation and promotion of EuroGEO and its related initiatives

The purpose of this task is to provide support to EuroGEO in the particular context of in-situ data coordination. Focus will be in identify in-situ data products generated by EU funded projects and engage with them as well as with the EuroGEO action groups to identify their in-situ requirements, find potential synergies with Copernicus In-Situ requirements and assess the potential impact of the implementation of the relevant data initiatives such as the European Strategy for Data, the deployment of the EU-wide common data spaces - especially the Green Deal Data Space. The task will also liaise with the Copernicus In-Situ activities to promote use cases, success stories, etc., associated with in-situ data and will contribute to the strategic guidance regarding the evolution of European and international observing networks.

Task 3: Developing standard processes to facilitate the re-use of the data in relation to climate change adaptation

This task will focus on the assessment of the availability and documentation of data on economic losses and fatalities from weather- and climate-related extremes and developing guidance documentation for reporting. This showcase will build on previous overview of existent national datasets and associated metadata based on input received from EEA Member States through a questionnaire sent to EIONET network. This showcase will require:

1. Providing support with redistributing the questionnaire on the collection of economic losses in EEA Member States and cooperating countries to update information;
2. Performing the analysis of the questionnaire results and providing a synthesis report;
3. Developing a matrix of metadata as well as data itself to see if is of relevance to understand the climate insurance protection gap;
4. Developing a guidance document/Terms of Reference for reporting by EEA Member States and cooperating countries on economic losses from climate-related extremes including a methodology on how report on different sectors/areas, what perils to report on etc.

GEO-IDEA is funded by the European Environment Agency (EEA) under the EEA-RTD SLA on "Enhancing the access to in-situ Earth observation data in support of climate change adaptation policies and activities" as part of the Framework Contract No EEA/DIS/R0/24/007. It is a continuation of the EEA-RTD SLA on "Mainstreaming GEOSS Data Sharing and Management Principles in support of Europe's environment" known as InCASE project  (Framework Contract No EEA/DIS/R0/21/016).