SPEAKERS:

Ivan Petiteville, European Space Agency (ESA)

Tim Stryker, US Geological Survey (USGS)

Max Craglia, European Commission Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC)

Geoff Sawyer, European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC)

Jay Pearlman, Fourbridges

Alan Smart, ACIL & Tasmanian Spatial Industries Council

SUMMARY:

• The speakers talked about the history of trying to measure the value of earth observations data, what progress has been made and what they key challenges are for the future.
• Governments increasingly want to understand the impact of their investments, both for the space sector and the broader economy.
• ESA’s Copernicus program and USGS’s Landsat are examples of programs where earth observations data is becoming more open and more highly valued.
• Since work began over a decade ago, the question has changed from whether there can be one unified method for measuring the value of earth observations to asking who is using the data and for what purpose.
• Good progress to address these questions had been made at the 2019 GEOValue workshop, hosted by ESA and held at Frascati in July which brought the international community together.
• A key area for future attention is to develop communities of best practice, which can share methodologies and case analyses between organizations.
• These communities must be multi-disciplinary bringing together, political, economic and analytical expertise.
• Evidence-based story-telling around case studies, which relate the value of earth observation data to stakeholders is a key objective - and a convincing outcome for stakeholders.
• The methods used for valuing earth observation data will depend on who needs the data and for what purpose and the case study approach is commonly recognised to be appropriate.
• There has been rapid change in both the technology involved in earth observations and the user base, from scientists alone to governments and private firms.
• In this respect, the 2019 “GEOValue” Workshop identified 5 key domains where earth observations add value; socio-economic benefits, social environmental benefits, better regulation, innovation and entrepreneurship and scientific advances.
• From this, the workshop participants concluded that a framework is needed to provide a structure for GEOValue analyses and that a repository of results needs to be established which will include methodologies, practical applications and solutions.
• The 2020 GEOValue workshop will be held next September in Montreal; hosted by the Canadian Space Agency.