Host: European Commission Joint Research Centre, with funding from DG GROW
Organizers: EC JRC and GROW, GEOGLAM, NASA Harvest 
Objective: To develop a holistic characterization of requirements for agricultural monitoring, from data needs to infrastructure and information services, in the GEOGLAM context. Together with “Emerging Technologies” meeting, this will contribute toward a Harvest report on the community research and operationalization agenda for agricultural monitoring.

Context & Outcomes: Since 2011, the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) Initiative has had as a core activity the coordination of Earth observations data for those undertaking cropland and rangeland monitoring at national, regional, and global scales. Critical to this has been a partnership with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), which has maintained an Ad Hoc Working Group on GEOGLAM since 2012, tasked with evaluating and assisting with the implementation of GEOGLAM data requirements and requests for acquisition. In 2012, this CEOS Ad Hoc Working Group on GEOGLAM convened at the Canadian Space Agency for the first time, and concretely characterized satellite data requirements for a variety of agricultural products (Appendix Figure 1). This was an evolution of a previous GEO Agricultural Community of Practice effort to characterize monitoring requirements in a sensor-agnostic manner (via the “Defourny Diagram,” Appendix Figure 2). Between 2016 and 2017, GEOGLAM undertook a refreshment of these requirements from a “state of the science” perspective – through survey of participants in the Joint Experiment on Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) and Asia-RiCE networks. It was agreed upon – through consultation with the CEOS Ad Hoc WG on GEOGLAM during their annual meeting in September 2017 – that this R&D perspective should be complemented by an assessment of the data and service requirements from the operational user perspective. 

This workshop pulls together operational users of satellite data for agricultural monitoring at national, regional, and global scales, and provides an opportunity for congress with CEOS representatives and data and service providers, in the context of GEOGLAM. The first day (17th) will cover the state of use of EO data by these operational entities, and identify current gaps in acquisition. Outcomes from the first day include an updated GEOGLAM EO Data Requirements Table and the beginning of a gap assessment from the acquisition perspective. The second day (18th) will begin with an introduction to a variety of information and computation technology (ICT) systems which have been developed to assist in data access, storage, and processing, and which in some cases leverage innovations in cloud computation and big data. We will delve into a holistic picture of EO data uptake, including the state of use of tools, processors, and ICT, and identify potential synergies between different ICT systems and opportunities for implementation and pilots with operational users. The outcomes of these discussions include broad programmatic planning for GEOGLAM, particularly in the EO Data Coordination, ICT, and Capacity Development working areas. Further, this meeting will conclude with a discussion about how to concretely advance our data coordination activities with CEOS.