(SAR) to Support Agricultural Monitoring 2 - Group on Earth ...

International GEO Workshop on <strong>SAR</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Support</strong> <strong>Agricultural</strong> Moni<strong>to</strong>ring
5. Recommendations
Over the course of the workshop, many issues and recommendations were highlighted, but
several key ones were given the highest priority for action by the partipcants. The
recommendations that recurred over and over during the breakout groups and the panel
discussion were the following:
1. Organize a <strong>SAR</strong> component of the GEO Global <strong>Agricultural</strong> Moni<strong>to</strong>ring
Community of Practice (CoP) and its partners <strong>to</strong> coordinate initiatives related
<strong>to</strong> the development of the <strong>Agricultural</strong> Moni<strong>to</strong>ring System of Systems.
2. Pressure space agencies and data providers for lower cost <strong>SAR</strong> data and <strong>to</strong>
remove restrictions on sharing and copying of data.
3. Use JECAM (GEO Joint Experiment for Crop Area Moni<strong>to</strong>ring:
Towards an <strong>Agricultural</strong> Moni<strong>to</strong>ring System of Systems) as a mechanism
for capacity building in developing countries.
4. Establish a website portal that includes training on <strong>SAR</strong> methods and best
practices for agriculture applications, including manuals, glossary of terms,
list of experts, user forums and links <strong>to</strong> <strong>SAR</strong> data providers and other
resources.
5. Encourage scientific exchanges, capacity building and training through
GEO organized annual/bi-annual workshops.
6. Establish international supersites <strong>to</strong> facilitate research collaborations.
7. Document and clearly communicate data requirements of the agriculture
community with respect <strong>to</strong>: spatial resolution; spatial coverage; temporal
revisit/relook; data latency/delivery; and, <strong>SAR</strong> sensor parameters (frequency,
polarizations, angles). These requirements should be communicated <strong>to</strong> the
Space Agencies.
8. Advocate the importance of data continuity policies through future satellite
missions.
9. Prioritize and coordinate development of training programs and
analysis/application <strong>to</strong>ols and make these available <strong>to</strong> developing countries.
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