GEOEssential is addressing the need for trusted sources of data and information to monitor the progresses made on environmental conditions towards policy targets. The project will demonstrate the feasibility of Essential Variables across GEO Societal Benefit Areas. It will create cross-thematic workflows to evaluate, predict and monitor natural resources to inform via Earth Observations the Sustainable Development Goals. Existing structures and platforms will be analysed in order to identify substantial gaps and synergies for addressing the needs of environmental policy in agriculture, soil, water, biodiversity, energy, light and raw materials. Solutions for improvements will be provided in cooperation with GEO and Copernicus programmes.

The methodology proposed in GEOEssential is going beyond the outputs of the ConnectinGEO project that identified key gaps in the definition of GEO EVs. The main idea is to build demonstration workflows that will be using EVs served by the GEO infrastructure to derive policy relevant indicators. The GEOEssential project is addressing Strand 2 of the ERA-Planet project (Resource efficiency and environmental management) but it is also connected to the three other Strands through a common data infrastructure.

GEOEssential has gathered a strong team of experts in various fields of Earth observations and their applications, 14 participants from 7 countries.

The GEOEssential project has a total cost of 10.401.932,28€ and is funded by EC with a budget of 2.712.255,91€.