1. GEO South – Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean Symposium on Earth Observation Services for Monitoring the Environment and Protecting the General Public E. Christia, & V. Tritakis Greek GEO Office - National observatory, Athens Mariolopoulos – Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences greekgeo@admin.noa.gr greekgeo@admin.noa.gr Aim and Subject of the Symposium This event was organized because of the growing importance of Earth observations for addressing the global challenges of climate change, natural disasters, biodiversity loss, limited natural resources and sustainable development. The main scope of this Symposium is to inform countries, they have not yet joined GEO, about the benefits of participating in GEOSS, how to contribute to its construction and how to access and apply the products and services it provides. For countries they are already GEO members, the Symposium will offer an opportunity to strengthen regional collaboration in South–Eastern Europe in the\ domain of Earth observations. In addition, to identifying opportunities for meeting the needs of policymakers, the Symposium could lead to the creation of a network of scientists to develop Competitive proposals to the EC and other EU bodies for strengthening Earth observations in the region. 1.Presentation of GEO-GEOSS activities and benefits by the GEO Secretariat and International Scientific Bodies 2.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 3.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. Methodology a) Needs closer collaboration between the involved countries. The areas identified for such collaboration were Coastal Zone Management Natural Hazards (Forest Fires, Earthquakes) Drought Monitoring. b) The Greek GEO Office distributed a Questionnaire for Earth Observation (EO) Capacities and Capabilities, to be filled by each participant in close collaboration with the research/academic community of his/her country. Results The goal of this Questionnaire is to survey the current status on Earth Observation applications, the capabilities of data exchanges, data productions and the needs of collaboration according to 9 SBAs of GEOSS. Questionnaire Fields 17 Countries were invited 11 Countries were participated A Second Symposium on 2010 will be a fruitful future action. Existing GEO Tasks: DI-09-01b: on Seismographic Networks Improvement and Coordination DI-09-03a: on Tsunami Early Warning System of Systems, DI-09-03b: on Implementation of a Fire Warning System at Global Level. WA-06-02: on Droughts, Floods and Water Resource Management WA-08-01: on Integrated Products for Water Resource Management and Research. Proposal of a New Task on Earthquakes and Seismic Activities or on the Development of Improved Basin – wide Observation Capabilities for the Eastern Mediterranean GEO Engagement: Organization (s) overview Scientific organization (s) overview EO Data Use EO Data Archiving EO Systems for Emergency Situation Management Picture 1. The participants of GEO South – Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean Symposium that held on 8-10 th June 2009 in Athens, Greece. 3rd GEO European Projects Workshop, Istanbul, Turkey, 8th-9th October 2009