Earth Observations in Europe - EuroGEO

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO)

EuroGEO is the regional branch of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), an intergovernmental organisation which provides Earth intelligence solutions to address global challenges. EuroGEO combines European Earth observation resources, coordinates EO related research activities for GEO, and fosters collaborations across Europe and globally.

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is a unique global partnership of more than 115 national governments, the European Commission, and over 155 participating organisations and associates. It connects governments, academia, organisations, civil society and the private sector to tackle global challenges through innovative solutions that harness the power of Earth Intelligence, ensuring openness, collaboration, and inclusivity, making Earth Intelligence accessible and beneficial to all.  Earth intelligence refers to earth observation data-driven knowledge and tools, co-developed with users for evidence-based decision making at all levels (local, regional, global).

To realise its vision of a world where trusted Earth Intelligence is universally accessible and empowers society to achieve a sustainable future, GEO connects the demand for sound and timely environmental information with the supply of data and information about the earth that is collected through observing systems and made available by the GEO community. In doing so, GEO unlocks the power of Earth Observations by facilitating their accessibility and application to global decision-making within and across many different domains.

The European Commission represents the European Union in GEO and is one of the four co-chairs of GEO plenary and Executive Committee.

What is EuroGEO?

EuroGEO is a regional initiative within the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and is composed of the European members of GEO, also referred to as the European Caucus.

EuroGEO focuses on the following strategic actions

• engaging with a broad range of users in Europe to identify their requirements for EO-based services or products, leveraging the wide range of European EO assets, and also addressing the inter-connections between various groups and policy areas
• demonstrating, incubating, upscaling, downscaling, or replicating existing EO services and products across Europe and beyond, also through streamlining innovation instruments available at EU, national or sub-national levels and actively promoting synergies
• establishing connections among European EO research communities, service providers, including the private sector, and users to facilitate mutual learning and the dissemination of best practices and successful business models across Europe
• contributing to the design of a European digital ecosystem that supports access and interoperability of earth observation data; provides benefits to businesses, citizens, and scientists; and promotes the GEO vision in Europe to realise a future where decisions and actions are informed by evidence
• supporting the consolidation of national GEO management structures across Europe and ensuring the alignment of EuroGEO with the GEO engagement priorities

EuroGEO's strategy is based around the 3Cs – Coordination, Combination and Cooperation:

• coordination of user driven activities to ensure a coherent European contribution to GEO
• combination or integration of activities to reach critical-mass of use
• cooperation beyond individual programmes and user communities in Europe

At the core of EuroGEO, the Action Groups, are voluntary bottom-up groups that are overseen by the EuroGEO Coordination Group, to either develop the selected EuroGEO application pilots or conduct other actions foreseen in the EuroGEO roadmap. These groups comprise representatives identified by the supporting Caucus' members depending on the relevance of their activities.

EuroGEO includes 9 Action Groups to deal with specific user-needs: 

• Agriculture
• Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Geodiversity
• Climate
• Disaster Resilience and Health
• Energy
• Green Deal Data Spaces
• Land Cover and Land Intelligence (LC&LI)
• Marine
• Urban

The EuroGEO website, created by the Secretariat provides detailed information about EuroGEO activities, including a calendar for webinars, conferences and workshops, news, success stories and more.

EuroGEO activities are coordinated by the GEO High Level Working Group, an expert group of the European Commission

The EuroGEO Secretariat

A EuroGEO Secretariat was established as a CSA (Coordination and Support Action) project funded by Horizon Europe.

The EuroGEO Secretariat serves as a '3C' (Coordination, Combination and Cooperation) engagement platform to structure the EuroGEO ecosystem. It coordinates, supports and facilitates the smooth implementation and integration of EuroGEO initiative activities and Action groups. 

The secretariat delivers an evidence-based framework supporting the prioritisation of research funding in Europe, supports the planning, execution and monitoring of the EuroGEO implementation plan and contributes to the GEO strategic plan, assisting to the development of a sustainability concept towards ensuring long-term operation of the EuroGEO initiative and maximising the impact of its activities through professional communication and dissemination.

Focusing on users – who will benefit?

The main challenge for EuroGEO is to move from a data centric approach to a user-driven one. 

The main European user types targeted, complemented by examples of EU funded research and innovation projects that are developing solutions for each user type, are the following:

• European, national and local government decision and policy makers; Several EU funded research and innovation projects developed solutions based on Earth Observation data, addressing pressing challenges for decision and policy makers. For example, the  Horizon 2020 project SAFERS, developed a forest fire early warning system that can be used by local authorities, environmental agencies and forest and civil protection services, while HARMONIA project developed an Integrated Resilience Assessment Platform (IRAP), that supports three types of Decision Support System, Multi-hazard mitigation and adaptation measures, Urban planning and Urban health and well-being.
• Researchers and scientists performing environmental related analyses; as an example the EO4EU Horizon Europe project is developing a platform that supports research requiring more accessible earth observation data, while OEMC project is developing numerous use cases in various fields, with national, European or global scope.
• Private-sector entities requiring Earth observations applications for market development; an example is the mobile app for agricultural monitoring developed by the ENVISION project. Another example is nextSENSE, a solar energy nowcasting & short-term forecasting system developed by the EU funded project e-SHAPE.
• Citizens who want proper management of region’s biodiversity, climate, and pollution and who want to learn more about their environment through citizen science initiatives. Several EU funded research and innovation projects are developing platforms and digital tools (portable sensors, wearables etc.) that enable citizens to engage in environmental monitoring in their area, as for example the toolkits developed by the CitiObs project.

A wealth of Earth Observations data based digital solutions were developed from EU funded R&I projects, serving the needs of all user types.  A selection of these projects features in the following publications: 

• Environmental observations for the EU Green Deal, Earth intelligence paves the way for a climate-neutral future
• Advancing FAIR and open environmental data, AI-driven solutions for the European Green Deal and data strategy

More EuroGEO examples, by target audience, can be found in the GEO Knowledge Hub.

Earth observation in Europe today

Earth observation in Europe is performed on a local, national and European level. It is based on a range of capacities including space-based, airborne, seaborne or land-based observation systems, including observations coming from citizens.

The Copernicus programme, representing a major contribution to GEO and broader Sustainable Development Goals, powers a wide range of free and open downstream services and plays a key role in advancing the global Earth observation ecosystem, translating space data into real-world impact, addressing key societal priorities such as environmental monitoring, climate change, and disaster management. Copernicus fosters a culture of innovation, enabling policymakers and the public to make informed decisions.

Free, instant access to a wide range of data and services from the Copernicus Sentinel missions and more on our planet’s land, oceans and atmosphere is provided through the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.

Based on the Copernicus programme, a rich landscape of European Earth observation and data infrastructures and a thriving Earth observation research community, a large range of Earth observation based trusted and sustained products and services are provided which serve the needs of users in Europe and globally. 

EuroGEO aims to provide a coherent picture of Earth observation in Europe by combining existing Earth observation assets and initiatives.

You can find more information on Earth observation in Europe in the Environmental observation webpage within the Research and Innovation website of the European Commission.