Project Structure

geoland particularly addresses environmentally relevant issues such as water quality, nature protection, the Kyoto-process or food security issues. The project is structured into three regional and three global observatories, each of them supported by a core service providing basic geo-information inputs. An Operational Scenario is being established to define the geo-information infrastructure and satellite technology requirements to achieve a fully operational service.

geoland Pyramide


The project is organised into nine sub-tasks:

Regional services focussed on the implementation of newly established European Directives structured into

  • a Nature Protection Observatory addressing the Habitats and Bird Directive, the Ramsar Convention, the Convention on Biological Diversity;
  • a Water and Soil Observatory addressing the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection, and the Water Framework Directive;
  • a Spatial Planning Observatory addressing the European Spatial Development Perspective, and the European Spatial Observatory Network;
  • a Core Service Land Cover supporting the Observatories with cross-cutting land cover and land cover change products.
All activities take into account the 6th Environmental Action Programme, the Sustainable Development Strategy, the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive, INSPIRE, and ESDI.

Global services directed towards the support of policies addressing Global Change and Sustainable Development, structured into a

  • a Natural Carbon Fluxes Observatory addressing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,
  • a Global Land Cover and Forest Change Observatory addressing the UN Forum on Forest, and the Forest and Development Communication of the Commission, Support of Environmental Measure in Developing Countries,
  • a Food Security and Crop Monitoring Observatory addressing the council regulations on Food Aid Policy,
  • a Core Service Bio-geophysical Parametres supporting the observatories with cross-cutting parametre products.

Operational Scenarios development, including service infrastructure design and implementation planning.

All geoland products and services are designed to provide the sustainability, availability, reliability and cost efficiency that public authorities have long desired.