The Users’ Role in the European Land Monitoring Context

Abstract

From the different communications published by the EU, policy makers and public authorities have been defined as the major users of the GMES land initiative. In parallel, national mandated bodies and research institutions have been in charge of the development of the national land monitoring program and of the development of the CORINE Land Cover program at the EU level, which has been included as one of the GMES activities.

Defined by their geographical influence, the users in the current European land monitoring context are divided into:

– High-level European and International user organizations, which influence and support the production of uniform European wall-to-wall products;

– National and regional/local user organizations, which are more focused on determining the added value of the services being supplied, establishing what would be their general needs and provide access to in-situ data.

In the GMES program, there has been variable involvement of user organizations linked to the different projects resulting in variable levels of satisfaction with the project outcomes. Involvement ranged from partnerships between service providers and users where users were actively engaged in establishing requirements and service specifications, service reviews and final assessment of the utility of the product; to a more theoretically and political involvement, where users would have little opportunities to participate in the development of the services.