GMES Background

GMES - Global Monitoring for Environment and Security - is a joint initiative of the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA). GMES is a joint stakeholder effort - bringing public user organisations, researchers, and service providers together in order to establish operational geo-information services that support the implementation of European policies in the fields of Environment, Cohesion, Agriculture, Foreign Aid, and Security.

GSE Land is designed to fundamentally support the GMES initiative, focusing on the GMES priorities "Land Cover Change in Europe", and "Environmental Stress in Europe".

GSE Land - Preceeding Projects

GSE Land joins the three ESA GSE projects that had already worked on land applications and brought these to a status of pre-maturity during the GSE Stage-1 programme:

• SAGE addressing water pollution, water abstraction by irrigation, agri-environmental as well as soil sealing indicators
• GMES Urban Services (GUS) providing urban mapping and monitoring services
• CoastWatch (land part) supporting an integrated coastal zone management

The consortia and their skills have been merged in order to provide a joint portfolio of mature GSE Land Information Services.

To learn more about the European GMES initiative, please visit www.gmes.info