Earth Observation Data Policy and Europe

This paper summarizes the final report of the Earth Observation and Data Po licy and Europe (EOPOLE) fixed-term project, set up to review national rese arch on the subject and to make recommendations for its improvement within an Etr-wide context. It identifies the major issues to have emerged from th e areas of user perspectives, pricing policy, the impact of new technologie s on data policy, archiving policy and legal regulation and suggests ways o f dealing with them. These include orienting data policies towards specific uses rather than users themselves; presenting a common European voice over the trade and exchange of gee-information via new communication means; and establishing a European-scale think-tank able to provide independent asses sments of the economic, legal and international relations questions affecti ng Earth observation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.