GEO WEEK 2020, 2-6.11, Online

The Greek GEO Office has reached many milestones along its journey with GEO since 2006.Through this past year, it has taken a leadership role specifically in promoting Earth observation uses within the domains of urban resilience and cultural heritage. Along this line, the Greek GEO Office has undergone a full reorganization to empower its staff and address the most pressing challenges in coordinating its activities under the following three pillars: urban resilience and sustainable urbanization; climate change impacts on cultural and natural heritage; and, Sustainable Development Goals.

GEO WEEK 2020, 2-6.11, Online

The official Greek statement and announcement made by the Head of the Greek Delegation Team during the “Action on Climate Change” Session at the GEO-XVI Plenary in November 2019 urged the larger GEO community to play their part as pioneers for Earth observation-driven protection of cultural heritage from climate change. As a follow up, an official exchange of letters between GEO and UNESCO took place, with the active participation of the Greek GEO Office, to lay the groundwork for ultimately launching an open invitation to gauge the interest and support of the GEO community for an activity integrating cultural heritage aspects into the GEO 2020-2022 Work Programme.This community activity,entitled “Earth Observations for Climate Change Impacts on World Heritage Cities (CCI-WHC)”, garnered great interest from public and private entities across 24 countries and 10 international organisations, for a total of approximately 80 interested partners, and was approved by the GEO Programme Board in September 2020. It is co-chaired by Greece and UNESCO through the Greek GEO Office and the World Heritage Centre, respectively, and aims to draw upon the GEO community’s rich expertise to realize the untapped potential of Earth observations to monitor and enable specific mitigation and adaptation strategies to shield cultural heritage from climate change risks. While the focus is on the entire urban fabric, the activity will also integrate broader facets of cultural heritage, and will work to address parts of the GEO priority engagement areas, i.e. the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with the proposed engagement priority relating to the New Urban Agenda. The protection of world heritage is a global need that requires a global approach, and as such, CCI-WHC remains open to incorporate new expertise, resources and ideas to ensure that this imperative mission is accomplished!

GEO WEEK 2019, 4-9.11, Canberra, Australlia

Greece has undertaken the initiative to propose to the UN Climate Action Summit, an additional action needed to protect natural and cultural monuments that are threatened by manmade climate change. The proposal has been supported by WMO and UNESCO. It has been presented in New York by the Prime Minister of Greece who will organize a Summit to invite world leaders to endorse additionally to the UN the Greek initiative. Already the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, has included the Greek proposal together to the group of emblematic proposals of interest to the UN. The Greek proposal provides a strong opportunity to the Global Observing System of Systems which will be asked to collaborate with Greece and other supporting countries to materialize this important issue. Further details will be announced officially in the months to come. 

GEO WEEK 2019, 4-9.11, Canberra, Australlia

In 2020, the Greek GEO Office (GGO) will continue to pull together all competent resources to design and coordinate a SDG support frame at the national level. By synthesizing best practices from abroad and in collaboration with GEO and EO4SDG, GGO will raise awareness on the use of Earth observation in monitoring individual SDG indicators and moving towards achieving the relevant targets. Through mobilizing and engaging the whole ecosystem for sustainable development, including the Hellenic Statistical authority, involved ministries, and a diverse board of EO experts, we envisage building a concrete and productive collaboration to drive sustainable development in Greece.

GEO WEEK 2019, 4-9.11, Canberra, Australlia

As BEYOND EO Center of Excellence of the National Observatory of Athens, we are really honored that our H2020 project GEO-CRADLE has been upgraded to a GEO Initiative, in recognition of its contribution towards the implementation of GEO, GEOSS and Copernicus in North Africa, Middle East, Balkans and Black Sea. We are applying our EO maturity assessment methodology and elaborate with stakeholders the implementation of the Roadmap with an action plan to further promote interdisciplinary and cross-border collaboration towards the delivery of EO-based benefits to society and economy. We continue expanding and coordinating EO activities through capacity building, promotion of the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles, and enrichment of our Regional Networking Platform and Regional Data Hub. We serve cross-border actions in relation to climate change, food security, raw materials, solar energy, disasters and water resources management.
The GEO-CRADLE initiative supports the development of the NextGEOSS European Data Hub by ingesting EO data and services available through the GEO-CRADLE Regional Data Hub, and establishes synergies with newly identified regional data owners and data portals.
Capitalising on the GEO-CARDLE impact, we are contractually assuming roles for capacity building and EO services uptake, in the framework of EU flagship projects and initiatives such as EuroGEO/e-shape, EuroGEO/action groups, EXCELSIOR teaming, ERA-PLANET, and FIRE EO business uptake.