Since its inception, the IGOS geohazards theme has been a bridge between high level policy makers such as UNESCO and the geohazard community. This role has gained weight through the interaction with the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) currently established by GEO. The GEOSS project helps production and management of observations in a way that benefits environment and humanity. GEOSS is envisioned as a large national and international cooperative effort to bring together existing and new hardware and software, making it all compatible in order to supply data and information at no cost.

Improving access to Earth observations is one of the main objectives of GEO and complements the IGOS Partnership initiative with larger scopes. GEOSS will be developed in order to respond to the needs of the society for:

• Easier and more open data access;
• Informed decision making;
• A better Earth Observing System.

While IGOS objective was to define a strategy, GEO is in charge of the implementation of GEOSS. To implement GEOSS, GEO defines tasks that are endorsed by Members States or organisations, or even expert groups. Each task reports to a specific committee:

• The User Interface Committee (UIC) aims at engaging users in the development and implementation of a sustained GEOSS. Users' requirements in terms of data and information are gathered from user groups across the "societal benefit areas" on national regional and global scale. IGOS Geohazards is represented by its Bureau in this committee.
• The Architecture and Data Committee (ADC) aims at supporting GEO in all architecture and data management aspects of the design, coordination, and implementation of the GEOSS. From a geohazards perspective, ADC provides requirements on how to perform inventories of geohazards data and sensors in an interoperable way.
• The Science and Technology Committee (STC) explores new science breakthroughs in Earth observation science. IGOS Geohazards is represented by BGS in this committee.
• The Capacity Building Committee (CBC) explores the capacity building needs, in particular to increase capabilities of Earth observations and interpretation in developing countries. IGOS Geohazards is represented by UNESCO in this committee.

IGOS Geohazards has been represented in these four committees. The participation to the UIC is necessary to be in the user requirement process of GEO. The participation to the Architecture Committee is necessary to make the GeoHazData system interoperable with the others. The participation to STC is necessary report on task DI-06-03. The participation to the CBC is necessary to stimulate cooperation and exchange of knowledge with developping countries.

IGOS Geohazards has been participating in the GEO process since late 2005 through the leadership of two GEO tasks. These include the setting up of a global inventory of hazard maps (Task DI-06-07) and a task focused on improving the integration of InSAR technology in disaster management (Task DI-06-03). IGOS Geohazards Member Organisations also participate actively in the implementation of GEOSS: as an example, GGOS and FDSN contribute or co-lead GEO tasks and ESA plays a key role in the Architecture and Data Committee's task implementing the GEO Clearing House. Finally, geohazard observing systems such as the Global Seismological Network and GGOS have already been identified as components of GEOSS.

Since early 2006, IGOS Geohazards has been recognised as an initial kernel of a Geohazards Community of Practice (CoP), i.e. as a group of experts concerned with the scientific and operational geospatial information needs for the prediction and monitoring of geohazards. The concept "Geohazards CoP" should be used very cautiously as there are in fact many communities of practice, that have various Earth observations requirements. According to the definition, Communities of Practice are informal groups of people, sharing the same objectives, and with various degrees of involvement. To illustrate this, various Geohazards CoP including observation providers and end users are shown in Figure 8, which outlines their link with IGOS Geohazards. The precise role of IGOS Geohazards Joint Committee in this context is to be the active kernel of the Community of Practice concerned with Earth observations for geohazards.

GEO can be of benefit to the Geohazards CoP through the following aspects:

• Through the division of the GEOSS implementation into small tasks, GEO helps attract and bring together experts in specific fields and this leads to very useful exchange of knowledge;
• GEO can help emerging technologies to reach user groups through the User Interface Committee;
• Through the Architecture and Data Committee, GEO can help geohazards communities of practice to ensure interoperability of the systems they need to develop (e.g. various inventories);
• GEO provides a political support to raise awareness of the decision makers of the need for performing inventories of hazards databases and on the difficult task it represents;
• GEO offers an international platform for outreach actions;
• GEO offers a political exposure with nations that support the GEO tasks adopted in bi-annual workplans;
• GEO provides financial supports for the participation of experts from developing countries at international workshops;
• GEO offers facilities such as contact lists and an FTP server which are very useful for the task implementation and help reach various communities of data providers and users.

GEO provides a common framework within which:

• Diverse interest groups can put in place means for making their data available to the wider community. While they may not realise the benefits of this sharing in the short term, synergy between different types of data will becomes clear in the longer term;
• Countries can contribute with instrumentation or observing systems that can be integrated seamlessly to a larger Earth observation system. Users can no longer accept Earth observation systems that operate with different incompatible formats, which happens frequently in developing countries that are not sufficiently involved in the definition of the systems they require;
• GEO is to offer obvious bridges between various communities concerned with an efficient use of Earth observation data.

In this context, IGOS Geohazards endeavours to raise awareness and encourages the geohazard community to participate in the work of GEO in order that their needs in terms of earth observations are taken into consideration.

More generally, IGOS Geohazards must work to represent the geohazards community by stating and defending their requirements. This update of the IGOS Geohazards theme report provides an opportunity to review requirements in a formal way.