From GMES to NOE: a European network for the management of the environment

Space techniques are highly appropriate for collecting the information needed to address the problems of environment and security and Europe has been considering establishing its own autonomous system for this purpose. Two years since the first meeting in Baveno, the consensus has grown that, beyond the numerous positive aspects of the committed approach, the GMES initiative has been hampered, on one hand, by a scientific knowledge deficit of the issues at stake and, on the other hand, by the difficulties for potential stakeholders and consumers of reaping all the benefits of space systems of Earth observation. In order to solve these problems a networking approach involving space and in situ observatories, research centres and stakeholders is proposed.