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White House Seeks Comment on Draft Plan for Earth Observation System
September 8, 2004 -- The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has requested comments on its draft 10-year Strategic Plan for the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System. "This draft strategic plan is a critical first step toward integrating observation technologies for tracking environmental changes in every part of the globe, enabling citizens and leaders to make more informed decisions about their lives, environment and economies," according Dr. John H. Marburger III, Science Advisor to the President and Director of OSTP.
The concept of integration is at the heart of the draft Strategic Plan, which emphasizes, "The Earth is an integrated system. All processes that influence conditions on the Earth, whether ecological, biological, climatologically, or geological, are linked, and impact one another."
The draft plan provides a vision of enabling "a healthy public, economy, and planet through an integrated, comprehensive, and sustained Earth observation system." It focuses on "nine societal benefit areas" that will be enhanced by the creation of a more integrated observation system:
- Improve Weather Forecasting
- Reduce Loss of Life and Property From Disasters
- Protect and Monitor Our Ocean Resource
- Understand, Assess, Predict, Mitigate, and Adapt to Climate Variability and Change
- Support Sustainable Agriculture and Combat Land Degradation
- Understand the Effect of Environmental Factors on Human Health and Well-Being
- Develop the Capacity to Make Ecological Forecasts
- Protect and Monitor Water Resources
- Monitor and Manage Energy Resources
The U.S. draft Strategic Plan reflects the coordinated efforts of 18 federal agencies under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). The U.S. Strategic Plan will likely represent an important element of the third Global Earth Observations Summit scheduled for February 2005 in Brussels. The ongoing development of the Global Earth Observation System involves representatives from 49 countries, the European Commission, and 29 international organizations.
Many of the issues in the draft Strategic Plan will be addressed at NCSE's 5th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment: Forecasting Environmental Change. The conference will take place February 3-4, 2005 in Washington, DC. For more information visit the conference website, http://www.ncseonline.org/NCSEconference/2005conference/.
The text of the draft Strategic Plan is available at http://iwgeo.ssc.nasa.gov/draftstrategicplan. Comments on the draft are due by November 8, 2004, and should be sent to IWGEOcomments@noaa.gov. For more information on the Earth Observation System, see the U.S. Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations website at http://IWGEO.ssc.nasa.gov/ and the Global Earth Observation System website at http://earthobservations.org/.
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Craig Schiffries and Jeremy Katzen
National Council for Science and the Environment
1707 H Street, NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: 202-530-5810
E-mail: schiffries@NCSEonline.org
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