AEGOS intiative >
Africa-Europe Georesources Observation System (AEGOS) initiative
Objective
A shared, distributed, Internet-linked or satellite-based georesources observation system, based on open standards and interoperability developments, as a contribution to the sustainable development of African countries.
AEGOS Support Action:
A preparatory phase
On 22 December 2006, DG RTD launched the 7th EU Research & Technological Development Framework Programme and its first call for proposals.
It includes calls for a number of actions in support of Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) among which a Support Action concerning “Georesource information system for Africa”.
This project is aimed at “setting-up the preparatory phase for the building of an information system containing and making available African Geological resources including groundwater, energy, raw material and mineral resources (georesources) that are/have been collected through numerous initiatives by both African countries, regional, international and European Organizations collectively, and are a unique archive of Africa related geoscientific observation data which primarily need to be shared with African partners. Developing capacity building activities in the domain of earth observation in developing countries is a priority”.
AEGOS Support Action will constitute the preparatory phase and its main objectives will be the definition of 1) operational procedures for data management, 2) user-oriented products and services (3) the African-European partner network, (4) a geoscience contribution to GEOSS, in the context of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE).
A long term cooperation between Europe and Africa
AEGOS will be a major contribution to GEOSS that calls for the development of a global accessible, interoperable digital data and information system of systems.
Through INSPIRE, Europe is involved in the process of building an infrastructure for spatial information and developing relevant processing systems to transform data into useful information and provide long-term data archiving. This motivation is common to most developed countries and are equally important for countries in development in Africa.
Access to relevant information and decision support systems are required to ensure a rational and sustainable use of natural resources. As well as the integration of geological information with information on soils, surface water, agriculture, forest and natural habitats…
Organisation of the AEGOS Support Action
An opportunity to develop representative use-case scenarios and interoperability-based solutions for the better management of georesources:
Partners will define the conditions under which the setting up of a spatial data infrastructure can be achieved.
At all stage of the project development, the intellectual property rights of datasets and information systems will be preserved and conditions of use defined by the owner.
Tasks and works to be performed:
3 main conferences in Africa, several specialised workshops in Europe and Africa, definition of standards and best practices, setting up of expert groups, performance of studies and analysis, specific training courses or seminars, definition, organisation and management of joint or common initiatives, proposal of spin-off projects…
Breakdown structure of the AEGOS Support Action
Expected impacts
One of the expected impacts for this area of developing capacity building activities in the domain of Earth Observation in developing countries is Safeguarding and protecting observation data for georesources in Africa as well as helping exploiting the relevant observing systems.
The partners of the AEGOS Support Action
Each work package will have an African and an European leader 22 partners from Europe: Geological Surveys from Belgium, Czech Rep. France, Finland, Germany, UK, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and other R&D institutions: CIFEG, IRD, Beak; and Africa: Geological Surveys from Ethiopia, Namibia, Uganda, Senegal, South Africa, SEAMIC, UEMOA, School of Mines Zambia, Institute Resource Assessment Tanzania And 20 Associate Partners from Europe and Africa acting as potential sub-contractors for the AEGOS project.