Greek GEO Activities Greek GEO Activities Dr. Vasileios Tritakis Responsible for greekgeo office Greek GEO Office National Delegate: Prof. Christos Zerefos Supervisor: Prof. Vassileios Triatkis Scientific Collaborator: Mrs Eleni Christia, MsC Environmental Policy and Management.

 February 16th 2006 : Greece joins to GEO.  December, 2006 : Establishment of the Greek GEO Office (GGO) which operates under the National Observatory of Athens ( NOA) as an indepentent unit.  Staffing.-  The president of NOA Prof. C. Zerefos is the national deligate to GEO and ex officio the head of the GGO.  Supervisor and sub-national deligate in GEO is Dr. Vas. Tritakis  Scientific Collaborator is Mrs Eleni Christia, MsC Environmental Policy and Management. Flashback.-

Dissemination and Downscalling of all the GEO activities in national level. Bilateral communication GEO-Greek Scientific Community encouraging participation in international projects and activities. Preparation for participating in GEOSS implementation by building proper infrastructure. (i.e. inventory of data bases, sources, users,owners,gaps,overlappings, etc. An ambitious project would be the development of a unified national data base) Main purposes of GGO:

13 June, 2007, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece: Informative Meeting "The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the potential involvement of Greek Scientific Society". Local meetings in each research institute offering general information and developing a sense of mutual confidence. We made clear to all institutes that our role is to inform,help, encourage and stimulate GEO/GEOSS activities. Activity No.1: Informing and Building Confidence Inform and support the Greek Scientific Community to GEO/GEOSS involvement Inform and support the Greek Scientific Community to GEO/GEOSS involvement

Activity No.2: Encouraging Participation in GEO/GEOSS Activities Work Plan Greek GEO Office is leading the task EC-09-02a Impact of Tourism on Environmental and Socio-Economic Activities This period is supporting the FP6 projects GEOmon and AMFIC earth-simulator.com/ earth-simulator.com/ University Departments and Research Institutes supporting the WP  AR – NCMR  DA-09-03b – Academy of Athens  DI-09-01a – Aristotle University of Thessaloniki  HE – National Observatory Athens, National and Kapodistrian University Athens  HE-09-02b,d - National and Kapodistrian University of Athens  HE-09-03c – University of Crete  WA-08-01c - Aristotle University of Thessaloniki  EC-09-02c - Aristotle University of Thessaloniki  BI-07-01b – University of Ioannina

 8-10 June 2009, Athens, Greece: GEO South-Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean Symposium on "Earth Observation Services for Monitoring the Environment and Protecting the Citizens". The subject of this Symposium was to inform countries, they have not joined GEO yet, about the benefits of participating in GEOSS, how to contribute to its implementation and how they could benefit from future products and services. Activity No.3: Symposia and International Meetings. 3. Symposiums, Workshops, Meetings related to GEOSS Egypt, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Lebanon, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and GEO Secretariat 17 Countries were invited to participate 13 Countries were accepted the invitation 11 Countries were participated

Activities Presentation of GEO-GEOSS activities and benefits by the GEO Secretariat and International Scientific Bodies. Presentation of the Participating Countries about the current status of Earth Observations applications in their countries, according to the nine Societal Benefit Areas of GEOSS, to human potential, infrastructures and institutions capacities. Round table Discussion and Final Conclusions with a view to evaluate the needs, the gaps and the capabilities on Monitoring the Environment and Protecting the Citizens. Aims of the Symposium The participants of GEO South – Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean Symposium that held on 8-10th June 2009 in Athens, Greece.

 9-13 June 2008, Athens, Greece: A series of (regional) GEO Workshops organized by the GEO Coastal Zone Community of Practice and the IGOS Coastal Theme in partnership with GOOS and GTOS “ First Regional Workshop-Observing System Requiremnts for Managing and Mitigating the Impacts of Human Activities and Coastal Inundation in the Med Region”. Activities Objective and goals: The first regional workshop of the series focused on the specific needs, challenges and capabilities in the Mediterranean region. The Workshop aims to enlist strong participation from the countries in northern Africa. 3. Symposiums, Workshops, Meetings related to GEOSS

Activities Summary In general, the offshore marine observing system is in good condition and needs continued support and enhancement. Coastal marine and terrestrial observing systems have the added complication of the need for more involvement and control by individual States. More extensive capacity building and coordination of activities are needed, especially in the southern rim countries. The participants of First Regional Workshop that held on 9-13th June 2008 in Athens, Greece. index.html

 Festival "Les Rencontre de la Terre", Athens, Greece. Held from 12 to 15th of October 2009 under the patronage of the City of Athens by "Conferences sans Frontieres" and the Mariolopoulos Kanaginis Foundation and under the support of various Greek and French partners. The Festival was organized for the celebrating of International Year of Planet Earth. Activities 3. Symposiums, Workshops, Meetings related to GEOSS Objectives Raise public awareness of environmental issues Highlight the links of scientific cooperation with France on the environmental program

Activities Festival Activities Six conferences for general audience on earthquakes, climate change and water resources in Mediterranean Educational exposition for young people on the sustainable development under the partnership of GoodPlanet Foundation Scientific Videos on various subjects Training Activities for Children Students during the exhibition of Yann Arthus Bertrand (GoodPlanet) : Sustainable Development, Why? 4 sponsoring institutes 2200 Students Several hundreds of participants

Near – Future Meetings. Workshop on Impact of Tourism on Environmental and Socio-Economic Activities, June 2010, Athens, Greece. 4th GEO European Projects Workshop (GEPW-4) April 2010, Athens, Greece Organised by the EC and the Greek GEO Office. (You are all welcome)

Present Status.- We continue the inventory of the data bases in Greece. The half of the work has been already done. We encourage and stimulate people and institutes involved in GEO tasks. We continue our efforts for collaboration in South – east Europe and east Mediterranean within GEO/GEOSS frame.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! I WISH TO SEE ALL OF YOU IN ATHENS DURING THE GEPW-4 MEETING on APRIL 2010.