SAEON takes part in two national science workshops

Dr Amani Saidi, SAEON's Stakeholder Relations Manager

- By Dr Amani Saidi, SAEON Stakeholder Relations Manager

SAEON staff members took part in two national science workshops organised by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The first was the Earth Observation Workshop that was held at the CSIR International Conference Centre in Pretoria. It was attended by 65 delegates drawn from research councils, higher education institutions, government departments, the National Research Foundation (NRF), civil society and the private sector. The SAEON delegates were Johan Pauw (Managing Director), Dr Amani Saidi (Manager: Stakeholder Relations) and Avinash Chuntharpursat (Information Management Scientist).

The aim of the workshop was to explore ways of harmonising the activities of the South African chapters of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) committees and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) working groups in order to create a coherent contribution of South Africa to the global observation effort in support of societal benefits.

CEOS was established in 1984 at the request of the Economic Summit of Industrialised Nations Working Group (G7) as the international forum for space agencies in Earth Observation. GEO, on the other hand, was established through the July 2003 Declaration of the Earth Observation Summit as an organisational structure for issues relating to the space component of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

Following lengthy debates, the workshop resolved to move towards creating an Earth Observation (EO) Forum that would serve as a single hybrid structure to carry out the work of GEO and CEOS, and to collapse the South African chapters of GEO’s Science and Technology Committee and CEOS’ Working Group on Calibration and Validation into one committee.

Similarly, it was resolved to amalgamate GEO’s Architecture and Data Committee with CEOS’ Working Group on Information Systems and Services, and to merge GEO’s Capacity Building Committee with CEOS’ Working Group on Education, Training and Capacity Building. GEO’s User Interface Committee was retained as a stand-alone Committee.

The SAEON delegates offered to serve on three of the new EO Forum Committees.

SAEON staff members also took part in the Global Change National Science Workshop that was held at Pure Joy Conference facility in Pretoria. It was attended by delegates from the DST, Marine and Coastal Management (MCM), the NRF, research councils and universities. The SAEON delegation included Johan Pauw (Managing Director), Prof Tim O’Connor (Observation Science Specialist), Dr Angus Paterson (Elwandle Node Manager), Dr Nicky Allsopp (Fynbos Node Manager) and Dr Amani Saidi (Manager: Stakeholder Relations).

The workshop was part of the DST’s consultative process to get stakeholders’ input on the draft Global Change Grand Challenge Implementation Framework, as well as to give stakeholders a chance to articulate what they expected to see in the Global Change National Science Plan which is under preparation. With respect to the latter, SAEON made three presentations: one by Prof Tim O’Connor, providing a big picture perspective with some interpretations and analysis of Global Change and where SAEON fits into that big picture; the second one by Dr Nicky Allsopp giving a detailed terrestrial perspective; and the third one by Dr Angus Paterson, giving detailed coast and marine perspectives.

SAEON has since provided comments on the workshop output and Nicky has been delegated to represent SAEON as part of the Science Plan drafting team.