Authors: Giovanni Rum, Wenbo Chu (GEO Secretariat) Presented at: BYTE Big Data Community Workshop

1. Maximize the value of
Earth Observation Data
In a Big Data World
BYTE Big Data Community Workshop
Giovanni Rum
Wenbo Chu
GEO Secretariat
1 December 2016
Valencia, Spain

2. EO Data: Volume and Velocity
Jonathan T. Overpeck et al, Science 2011

3. EO Data: Variety

4. GEO Vision

5. A set of coordinated, independent Earth observation,
information and processing systems that interact and
provide access to diverse information for a broad
range of users in both public and private sectors.
GEOSS the Global Earth Observation
System of Systems

6. GEO is working to ensuring access to Data,
information, Knowledge
• GEOSS Data Sharing Principles (DSPs)
• Providers coordination
• GEOSS Information System
or GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI)
• GEO Data Management Principles (DMPs)
Value of EO data can not be maximized
unless they are made accessible, open and free

7. GEOSS Data Sharing Principles (2015)
• data, metadata and products will be shared as Open Data by
default, by making them available as part of the GEOSS Data
Collection of Open Resources for Everyone (Data-CORE)
without charge or restrictions on reuse, subject to the
conditions of registration and attribution when the data are
reused;
• where international instruments, national policies or legislation
preclude the sharing of data as Open Data, data should be
made available with minimal restrictions on use and at no more
than the cost of reproduction and distribution; and
• all shared data, products and metadata will be made available
with minimum time delay.
“The societal benefits of Earth observations cannot be
achieved without data sharing.”
GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan
The Third Earth Summit, Brussels, 2005

8. GEOSS Information System
a simple scheme
Some figures on GEOSS Assets:152 brokered catalogs,
approx 200 ml resources discoverable and accessible

9. GEOSS
Application
Enterprise
System A
Enterprise
System B Enterprise
System C
Enterprise
System D
Enterprise
System J
… .
GEOSS
Providers
GEOSS Application
Developers
GEOSS
Application
GEOSS
Application
GEOSS
Applications
Administrative
Registration
GEOSS Supply
system
GEOSS Portal
GEOSS Information System
A little bit of complexity .….

10. Life-cycle Data Management
GEOSS Data Management Principles: A Brief Overview
Data Management Principles Implementation Guidelines
• Description / explanation of
each principle and
implementation
• Guidance on implementation
with examples
• Resources for implementing
each principle
• Metrics measuring adherence to
implement each principle
DMP Implementation GuidelinesData Management Principles (DMP)

11. Apply Repository Certification to
Data Sharing Principles and
Data Management Principles
• Data sharing depends upon reliable repositories
– Repository certification verifies potential for reliability
– Renewal of certification affirms continuing reliability
• Data management depends on capabilities
– Validated by repository certification
• Repository certification in DMP IG
– DMP1: Metadata for Discovery;
– DMP7: Data Preservation;
– DMP8: Data and Metadata Verification;

12. GEOSS
Applications
Enterprise
System A
Enterprise
System B Enterprise
System C
Enterprise
System D
Enterprise
System J
… .
GEOSS
Providers
GEOSS Application
Developers
GEOSS
Users
GEOSS
Application
s
GEOSS
Applications
GEOSS
Applications
Administrative
Registration
GEOSS Supply
system
GEOSS Portal
GEOSS Information System
Including the users in the picture…
User Portal
Manual search
Machine to machine
interface

13. The Value of Open Data Sharing
• Economic Growth
• Social Welfare
• Research & Innovation
• Education
• Capacity Development
• Effective Governance &
Policy Making
The Value of Open Data Sharing

14. • The Landsat case
• Valuing Weather and Climate
• Agricultural Production and
Groundwater Quality
• Forest Management
Examples of economic value of EO data use

15. .
Before Open Data Policy: 53 scenes/day (*)
After Open Data Policy: 5,700 scenes/day
Annual Economic
Benefit
USA $1.70
B
International $400
M
Global Total $2.1 B
The Landsat case
(*) Average cost
600 $/scene

16. Valuing Weather and Climate:
Economic Assessment of Meteorological and
Hydrological Services
WMO Report WMO-No. 115, 2015
Yet, as NMHSs strive to maintain and improve the quality, diversity,
their services, they face challenges similar to other public institution
adequate and sustained funding. To compete for and optimize the u
investment resources, NMHSs may be required to demonstrate that
their services are significantly larger than the costs to produce and d
Although there is not a single definitive study on the global benefits
services, economi
consistently gener
ratios (BCRs) of gr
box). This publica
help NMHSs and o
met/hydro service
understanding of
methods to enabl
and commission s
supports utilizatio
improve service d
business optimiza
communication w
users and the pub
Illustrative economic assessments
of met/hydro services
– NMHS improvements to reduce disaster
losses in developing countries – BCRs range
from 4 to 1 to 36 to 1
– Current and improved weather forecasts in
the United States of America assessed for
households – BCR of at least 4 to 1
– Drought early warning system in Ethiopia to
reduce livelihood losses and dependence on
assistance – BCRs range from 3 to 1 to 6 to 1
– El Niño early warning system in a five-state
region of Mexico to improve decisionmaking
in agriculture – BCRs range from 2 to 1 to 9 to 1
BCR=
Benefit to
Cost Ratio

17. The study demonstrates the value of information (VOI)
of moderate-resolution land imagery (MRLI)—which
mostly includes Landsat imagery—using a case study
of agricultural production and preservation of
groundwater resources in the agricultural State of
Iowa. (Potential for cultivation of Soybean & Corn vs
Nitrogen content in water)
For the northeastern Iowa study region,
the marginal benefit of the MRLI VOI
(in 2010 dollars) is $858 million ± $197
million annualized.
An Economic Value of Remote-Sensing
Information—Application to Agricultural
Production and Maintaining Groundwater Quality
USGS Professional Paper 1795, 2012
28 An Economic Value of Remote-Sensing Informa
IOWA
Study
region
Th=Elt
−Elb ,
where Elt
is the elevation at the top of the aquifer an
the base elevation of the aquifer. The thickness laye
derived using GIS data and the technique of map alg
(ESRI, 2012) (fig. 16), and aquifer thickness for eac
calculated using spatial join in ArcGIS. A hydraulic-
tivity (HC) surface was created using the spatial inte
method kriging (refer to appendix 3 for details).
Soil Characteristics
For the study area, the soils included in the anal
related to natural boundaries, such as watersheds, rive
ridgelines. The NRCS STATSGO dataset was used (t
1). The soils database used in the analysis had a varie
important characteristics including hydrologic draina
texture, clay, silt, sand and rock content, number of la
the soil, depth of specific soil layers, maximum rootin
moist bulk density, available water capacity, organic
content, saturated HC, and electrical conductivity.

20. The economic benefits have been assessed based on
the transaction costs associated with government
regulation. Since forestry is a strategic industry in
Sweden the legislation covering it has a significant
economic effect.
The result leads to a significant economic benefit of
between €16.1m to €21.6m per annum
Copernicus Sentinels’ Products Economic Value:
A Case Study
Forest Management in Sweden
EARSC Report 2016, January 2016

21. Key Messages
To maximize the value of EO data, information and
Knowledge we have to
• Make them openly available, - GEOSS Data Sharing
Principles
• Ensure actual access – GCI -
• Manage them properly to ensure data accountability -
GEOSS Data Management Principles
• Showcase the value of EO data to inform the
decision-making
• Foster and support integration of EO data with socio-
economic data, also through dedicated collaborative
platforms

22. Thank you !
GEO Website
http://www.earthobservations.org/index.php
grum@geosec.org
wchu@geosec.org