What is GEOValue?

GEOValue is a multi-disciplinary international community pursuing trustable, evidence-based methodologies in the assessment of the use value of Earth Observations.

GEOValue is an Enabling Mechanism under the GEO Post 2025 Work Programme 

GEOValue mission is to facilitate the development of a capacity including technically-valid methods and resources to enable widely-accepted and broadly adopted assessment of Earth observations impacts.

GEOValue is driven by Earth science agencies that invest heavily in space-based and other complex observational platforms*. However, the group is open to external contributions, aiming at federating a community of experts and practitioners from different experiences and backgrounds in diverse sectors such as natural sciences, social sciences, computer sciences, engineering, economics, policy and decision making. The group has focused more recently on the value of the information derived from satellite EO but also from in-situ sensors, including integration with social science analyses and policy processes. 

GEOValue members share and discuss the outcomes from their own studies. The exchanges allow the members to compare methodologies, address common challenges and coordinate plans for future developments, as well as gathering EO user cases, supporting improvements in the quality of the assessments and the development of toolkits that can be widely used and acceptable. By discussing and sharing their knowledge, GEOValue participants wish to facilitate the development of community capacities and leading practices to provide robust benefits assessments of EO products and services.

GEOValue started as an ad-hoc group of interested experts who came together with the goal to develop overall capacity, methods and case studies to facilitate the way we understand, measure and promote the value of EO and geospatial information (including location intelligence) more broadly, in view of justifying investments. A first foundational workshop in 2010 was followed by many others with increased networking (even remotely during the Covid restrictions), with notable events in Paris (2016), Washington (2017), Kyoto (2018), Frascati (2019). Since 2015, GEOValue has organised several events that gathered the attention of a very heterogeneous community.

GEOValue would like to acknowledge the partners that have guided and supported us in shaping GEOValue as an international effort: CSA, EARSC, ESA, NASA, NOAA, FourBridges and USGS.

* The initial partners being from Canada (CSA), Europe (ESA) and the US (NASA, NOAA and USGS) plus occasional participation from others.