A European project is being designed to improve in situ environmental data for use by GTOS and European Union policy makers. The project will bring together networks from different sectors, recover historic long-term monitoring data that is currently archived, and develop links between in situ and Earth Observation data. The project will also contribute to the GTOS demonstration projects on Net Primary Production (NPP) and biodiversity. These data products and project findings will be made available through the web.

Future Activities

During 2003 activities will be carried out to develop the CEE programme. Activities include:

1. Registering suitable new research sites to TEMS.

2. Updating the GTOS/CEE website with supplementary information on the region, including news, developments, links to data products, satellite imagery and contact points.

3. Selecting suitable sites in the region for the NPP project. The sites will validate and calibrate the data from the MODIS sensor with other sites around the globe. The project will generate products (maps and statistics) relevant to land degradation, land covers change and regional carbon balances.

4. Building collaboration and networks in the region as there is a lack of communication between scientists at both the country and regional level.

5. Encouraging standardization of methods and adequate use of metadata through international workshops and through the development of methodology manuals.

6. Developing TCO regional activities to better evaluate the availability of suitable data for regional and global carbon studies.