Ministerial Summit in Cape Town
19 September 2007
Following the three previous Earth Observation Summits held in Washington,
District of Columbia in 2003, Tokyo in 2004, and Brussels in 2005, it is now
Africa's turn to host this very important event.
The Group on Earth Observations was established by a series of three
ministerial-level summits. GEO includes 71 member countries, the European
Commission, and 46 participating organisations working together to establish a
Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
The GEO vision for GEOSS is to realise a future wherein decisions and
actions for the benefit of humankind are informed via co-ordinated,
comprehensive and sustained earth observations and information. GEOSS will
build on and add value to existing Earth-observation systems by co-ordinating
their efforts, addressing critical gaps, supporting their interoperability,
sharing information, reaching a common understanding of user requirements, and
improving delivery of information to users.
The GEO Ministerial Summit will be held on 30 November 2007 in Cape Town,
South Africa.
The summit will allow to:
* report to ministers on the early progress made in the implementation of
the GEOSS and against the GEO 10 year Implementation Plan
* bring emerging priorities to the attention of the ministers
* engage the commitment of ministers to endorse the declaration of Cape
Town.
For more information on GEO, please visit â http://www.earthobservations.org
Date: 30 November 2007
Time: 8h00 to 16h00
Venue: Cape Town International Convention Centre
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
19 September 2007
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za)
