The framework for a plan to establish a global earth monitoring system has been approved by governments and international agencies at a meeting in Tokyo.

The second Earth Observation Summit, held on 25 April, saw agreement on a framework for a ten-year Implementation Plan to share a range of data that will improve our understanding of the earth’s systems, including its weather, climate, oceans, geology, ecosystems and natural and human-induced disasters.
The benefits mentioned in the framework extend to “expanding worldwide capacity and means to achieve sustainable development.” The framework highlights shortcomings of the existing observation systems and outlines the characteristics needed for an effective Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) that will be able to monitor disaster reduction, climate change, integrated water resources management, air quality, biodiversity conservation, and invasive species among other key environmental data. The framework states that the implementation of the Implementation Plan will require a “ministerial-guided successor mechanism with maximum flexibility” in the form of an intergovernmental group for Earth observations.
The plan builds on a Declaration adopted in July 2003 that made a political commitment to work towards developing a comprehensive observation system. A third Earth Observation Summit is slated for February 2005. More information on the Tokyo meeting is available from the Earth Observations website: http://earthobservations.org/ and the framework document is available at: http://earthobservations.org/docs/Framework%20Doc%20Final.pdf