Harnessing National Research Education Networks (NREN) infrastructure for research and data-sharing in Earth Observation and Climate Action

In the framework of the Katowice Declaration (Collaboration to support international Group on Earth Observation (GEO1) efforts) this session aims at advancing in the definition of actions to be proposed to concretize the collaboration between the regional research and education networks that could help leverage the impact of Earth Observation.

The Katowice Declaration was signed on 16 June 2022, during TNC22 by senior representatives of ASREN, GÉANT, and RedCLARA. It is the result of a previous roundtable on the subject held at the Internet Governance Forum, in Katowice, Poland, in December 2021.

To meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), tackle climate change, and prepare for and ‎respond to disasters (man-made or otherwise), data is required. This data is increasingly being ‎centralised into large data sets from a variety of different sources and at varying volumes. The GEO communities focus on the transmission and ‎exchange of such data which is utilised in the realm of geospatial research.

Geospatial research is ‎the investigation into the various aspects of earth science, but with a focus on locations, and this relies upon several communication layers and distribution systems. In some respects, these ‎layers are operated by a number of Private (commercial), Non-Profit, Governmental, and ‎Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to form a communications commons that the GEO ‎community relies upon for its systems and services to work.‎ The Katowice Declaration solidifies and commits future collaboration between the three regional R&E networks in this area and enables a blueprint for strategic engagement in the future.