Global Environmental Knowledge Ecoinformatics International Technical Collaborative June 21 – 22, 2007 European Environment Agency Copenhagen, Denmark

2 “Ensuring secure, affordable supplies of energy and tackling climate change are central, interlinked global challenges facing the international community. Addressing these issues requires urgent, sustained global action... We reaffirm our commitment to international cooperation on global observation and will continue to exercise leadership in the development of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), including working to strengthen weather observing, climate and air quality monitoring, and forecasting for human health, global disaster preparedness and monitoring, and drought monitoring and forecasting. We encourage participation in the November 30, 2007 Fourth Earth Observation Ministerial in Capetown, South Africa.” 2007 U.S.-EU Summit Statement: Energy Security, Efficiency, and Climate Change April 30, 2007

3 Everyday Choices: Opportunities for Environmental Stewardship (Nov ) “As we explore how to become a more sustainable society, it is clear that environmental stewardship can help preserve natural resources and achieve sustainable outcomes. In this project, we focused on six natural resource systems and desired outcomes for each one. They are: Air: Sustain clean and healthy air Ecosystems:Protect and restore ecosystems functions, goods, and services Energy: Generate clean energy and use it efficiently Land: Support ecologically sensitive land management and development Materials: Use materials carefully and shift to environmentally preferable materials Water: Sustain water resources to ensure quality and availability for desired uses”

4 Earth Observation Imperative Understanding the environment and the Earth system is fundamental –Environment affects basic needs for water, food, and shelter; affects key decisions in the U.S. in health, energy, agriculture, coastal planning, transportation, climate change mitigation and adaptation –Understanding environmental impacts on the U.S. requires understanding of the global environment and the Earth system generally

5 How Ecoinformatics Can Meet the Big Challenges Providing access to knowledge Support sustainability & indicators Research agenda to support monitoring earth observations and indicators Making tools and networks work for all Insure these tools are global in nature and capability