{"id":485602,"date":"2022-01-04T17:08:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T01:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcwatch&p=485602"},"modified":"2022-02-03T10:53:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T18:53:12","slug":"on-guard","status":"publish","type":"arcwatch","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcwatch\/on-guard","title":{"rendered":"On Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1172,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[383342,463771,551],"tags":[424992,170662,477132],"arcwatch_issues":[476682],"class_list":["post-485602","arcwatch","type-arcwatch","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-hub-2","category-climate-change","category-imagery","tag-arcgis-dashboards","tag-arcgis-hub","tag-disaster-risk-reduction","arcwatch_issues-february-2022","arcwatch_sections-the-headlines"],"acf":{"short_description":"Group on Earth Observations (GEO), Esri, and many other organizations and nations work together to reduce disaster risks worldwide.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Group on Earth Observations Collaborates with Esri and Other Organizations to Better Understand and Combat Disaster Risks<\/strong>\r\n\r\nOrganizations including the Group on Earth Observations<\/a> (GEO), Esri<\/a>, Geoscience Australia<\/a>, and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites<\/a> (CEOS) are collaborating to integrate Digital Earth Africa<\/a> (DE Africa) imagery into the Africa GeoPortal<\/a> and develop tailored applications and training materials that focus on reducing disaster risks on the continent of Africa.\r\n\r\nThis is just one example of the work being spearheaded by GEO, a partnership of governments and organizations that promotes the availability, access, and use of earth observations (EO) from both surface and satellite data. GEO was established in 2005 by the third Earth Observation Summit, with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) being one of GEO's initial participating organizations. GEO's objective is to highlight the value and usefulness of earth observations for research, policy, decision-making, and action. Using the data gathered from EO, decisionmakers can better understand things such as population density in different parts of the world and socio economic information including where vulnerable populations live."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":485662,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Today, the GEO community includes 113 countries, the European Commission, more than 700 national government agencies, 135 international participating organizations, and 17 GEO Associates<\/a>. GEO Associates are commercial and nonprofit organizations that have demonstrated commitment to GEO's mission and are recognized as official GEO collaborators. Esri is a GEO Associate, and 30 Esri staff members are currently participating in 34 different GEO Work Programme activities. They work in areas such as capacity development, climate action, and disaster risk reduction.\r\n\r\nAlong with collaborating on projects with Esri, GEO is using Esri software to create geospatial solutions for its disaster risk-reduction and resilience efforts. \"Earth observations are inherently spatial, and the analytic capabilities of Esri technologies make that data more accessible and understandable,\" said David Borges, a physical scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Science Division's Applied Sciences Program, in the Disasters program area. Borges also cochairs the recently formed GEO Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group (GEO DRR WG). Borges continued, \"GIS serves as a bridge between the scientific research communities and decision-makers.\""},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":485672,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The goal of the GEO DRR WG is to support policies such as the UNDRR Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015\u20132030, and the group serves as the primary GEO liaison to UNDRR. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the framework focuses on the following four priorities:\r\n