SA-GEO

The South African Group on Earth Observations (SA-GEO) is a forum which aims to mobilise the South African observations communities to advocate the use of Earth observations for societal benefit. 

SA-GEO also aims to encourage collaboration, data sharing and the operational use of earth observations in South Africa.

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One of the challenges which face decision makers at all levels, is easy and timely access to current and reliable information in a format that they can use and upon which they can base informed sound decisions.

Earth observations data obtained from satellites, aircraft and surface-based systems and innovatively processed, provide the required decision support information. Modern information and communications technology allows this information to reach decision makers timeously. It is also recognised that one dataset serves many applications, and many datasets provide information for a single decision. In South Africa these datasets are collected, processed, disseminated, and used by many Government departments, state agencies, parastatals, academia, NGOs and private industry.

SA-GEO is a voluntary community of local Earth observations users and suppliers. It is established around self-organising Communities of Practice (CoP’s) which are based on but not limited to the nine GEO societal benefit areas.

• SA-GEO is one of South Africa’s responses to GEO
• SA-GEO is a voluntary community of South African Earth Observers
• SA-GEO is organised around Communities of Practice (CoPs)
• SA-GEO CoPs are self-organising with the support of a Secretariat
• SA-GEO will encourage SAs contributions to GEO tasks and to building GEOSS

• To advocate the use of Earth Observations in decision-making
• To mobilise a co-ordinated Earth observations community
• To establish the Earth observations community’s user needs
• To encourage use of the SAEOSS Portal
• To advocate free and open access to Earth observations data
• To provide a collaboration area for the SA-GEO Communities of Practice

• Promoting coordination and integration of existing observations systems.
• Identifying user needs, gaps in data, meta data and products, and advocating for them to be addressed.
• Exploiting opportunities for synergy and cost-savings between systems, by promoting, amongst other things, interoperability standards for Earth observations information interchange.
• Promoting access (free and open) to Earth observations data.
• Advocating that information needs of users are met, in the form that they require, when they need it and at an affordable cost.
• Advocating for long-term research and development in Earth observations to bridge the gap between science and societal benefit.
• Linking to complementary capabilities in neighbouring countries and coordinating South African participation and inputs in AfriGEO and GEO, among other bodies.
• Publicising the role of Earth observations systems in sustainable development and the necessity for continued investments.